To assist in the creation of cutting-edge voice recognition systems that can meet the demands of people with speech impairments, Google announced that it is joining the Speech Accessibility Project.
Speech recognition is used to operate devices, browse web pages, translate speech, and employ voice assistants but if a user’s speech pattern is impacted by Lou Gehrig’s illness, Parkinson’s disease, or Down syndrome, among other causes, it may be challenging for voice-activated devices and services to function.
“Today’s speech recognition systems, such as voice assistants and translation tools, don’t always recognize people with a diversity of speech patterns often associated with disabilities… In effect, many individuals in these and other communities may be unable to benefit from the latest speech recognition tools,” Google said on October 4, 2022 in their press release.
Google said the project attempts to change that by assembling five technological companies that can collaborate to find a solution to the problem of making voice recognition functions for people with irregular speech patterns.
Google said that the project will initially focus on English before moving on to other languages.