Let There Be Talking People Too

 When I was in college I met a fellow student who had great difficulties communicating because of cerebral palsy. We became friends and as things turned out I designed a voice-synthesizer system that greatly enhanced his ability to communicate. Designing this device was a logical extension of my long-time interest in electronics, microcomputers, and voice synthesis. My friend’s case is a good example of how artificial aids – communicative or otherwise – improve the quality of life for disabled persons.

Personal computers have done more for people with communicative disorders than any other technological development. Microcomputers are versatile machines that can be customized fairly easily to fit the individual needs of each person. Computers can be programmed to accept input from any kind of switch or device and to interpret that input in whatever way the user wants. As well, they can be made to respond with visual or audible output, opening up a new world to deaf and blind individuals.

Nearly 500,000 Americans who are not classified as retarded are unable to communicate either vocally or with standard hand signs. An even more sobering thought is that perhaps 100,000 or more individuals of normal intelligence are in institutions and have been diagnosed as retarded simply because they do not have the physical means to communicate. We do not even have accurate statistics in this area because of the nature of the disability.

Assuming that the number of people with communicative disorders in this country amounts to two tenths of 1 percent of the population, then about 10 million people are affected world-wide.

While we now have the technology to build devices to compensate for almost any communicative disability, not everyone who needs a communication aid can afford one. They can’t be mass produced because (ideally) they all require some customization. A similar situation prevails in the case of artificial limbs. Each prosthesis can cost thousands of dollars because of the relatively small market and because each limb is handmade for the individual.

What we need are standard devices with plug-in memory modules, plug-in keyboard layouts, and modular-display or audio-output options. A communication aid could then be put together easily from two or three standardized modules and would fill 90 percent of the needs of most individuals with communication problems.

One highly successful device currently on the market is the Texas Instruments Speak & Spell, which was designed as a children’s learning tool. It has a reasonably large vocabulary and costs around $50. In its current configuration, it can work as a communication aid if you ignore the spelling mode and simply type messages letter by letter. If, however, a few extra features had been incorporated into its design it could have very easily functioned as a communication aid and still cost $50. It would have been the case of a mass-market product (with the price benefits of economies of scale and an extensive advertising campaign) doubling as a special-needs device. The integration of general-appeal consumer products with limited-market special-needs devices should be our goal. Thousands of people would benefit.

Recently Texas Instruments announced a new product called Vocaid, based on its Touch & Tell product. The $150 device can be used by people with short-term communications problems. It also is a great communication aid for anyone with reasonably good coordination and cognitive skills. It can also accept memory modules that have specialized vocabularies. As such, it is a good practical application of customizing a standard product by plugging in memory modules.

Part of the problem faced by disabled individuals is the way they are perceived by the able-bodied members of society. Today we scarcely think of someone who wears eyeglasses as disabled, yet before the discovery of the principles of optics, people with vision problems surely would not have been able to lead normal productive lives. I hope that in a similar way microcomputers will be able to help people with physical limitations overcome the restrictions to activity imposed on them by their disabilities and become, remain, and be viewed as productive members of society. It is an encouraging sign to see the proverbial “synthesizer on a chip.” And now that we have the technology we must accept the challenge of making the fruits of that technology available to the people who will benefit the most. On “Finding A Voice,” a recent episode of NOVA on public television, John Eulenburg of Michigan State University said, “If there are going to be talking micro wave ovens, let there be talking people too.”