Newsgroups: comp.speech
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From: ebohlman@netcom.com (Eric Bohlman)
Subject: Re: Voice synth for disabled?
Message-ID: <ebohlmanD45361.BxA@netcom.com>
Organization: OMS Development
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Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 10:15:37 GMT
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Nancy Roatcap (milligan@smartdocs.com) wrote:
: I have a friend with cerebral palsy. She is nearly mute and works
: on a third grade level. She has some problems gripping with her hands
: but signs and murmurs to communicate. She is 23 and looking for a voice
: synthesizer such as that used by Stephen Hawking, only more portable.

This is what's known as an augmentative/alternative communication 
system.  You might want to contact the Trace Center at the University of 
Wisconsin/Madison, which has done research on the subject and has 
published various handbooks.  They have a Gopher server; I don't recall 
the URL offhand, but if you have access to a Gopher client that can 
search geographically, you should be able to find it.

