Speak For Yourself

Last year at the Autism Society conference '13, I had a chance to meet up with Heidi and Renee, two of the creators behind the Speak for Yourself AAC app. They had some very interesting badges for us to put on our name-tags, as well as a chance to test out their app.  Both of them were thrilled to hear feedback and suggestions by autistic adults, and a couple of us were willing to discuss various topics about our experiences and communication.

First, I have to say, that I am not a regular AAC user; when I do lose verbal skills, I tend to grab pen and paper, if not a keyboard, and write.  Which is why I have the free version of Verbally, just in case, on my iPad.  The paid in-app upgrade, $99.99,  lets you save words and phrases, as well as upgraded voices.  I like the app because I can type out what I want to say.

Speak for Yourself, on the other hand, is a more traditional AAC; that is, it is a picture and word (PECs?) based AAC.  The full version is $199.99 , but there is a free version for testing out, which is what I have.   I can't speak for the usability of the app, being that I'm not a regular user.  However, reviews have pointed out that Speak for Yourself has features such as no repeating words, words that stay at the same place every time, and the ability to customize it.

The full app comes with a qwerty keyboard and the ability to customize words.  Any type of word, and the app voice is capable of speaking adult words.  At the conference, this was something that other adults and I discussed with the developers, the ability for self-expression and for the app to grow with a person.  The developers heartily agreed with us, and even showed us how to program the app to include swear words.

While I doubt that those words are included in the immediate vocabulary, it is good to know that they are not censored from the app, so adults can fully customize the words (and I believe the pictures) to suit their needs.

For these reasons, I highly recommend the Speak for Yourself and Verbally apps for adult autistics.  

Dragon Dictation

Dragon Dictation is the free app by Nuance, the software company that produces Dragon Naturally Speaking, a speech-to-text program that uses voice voice recognition for people who have an easier time speaking out their thoughts than to type.   It's a program that is highly regarded in the assistive technology market.

Basically, Dragon Dictation is their app version of Dragon Naturally Speaking. 

I tested it out because while I communicate better by writing or typing, when I'm writing assignments, sometimes I have to write my thoughts by hand and then it takes more time to type it up.  Which usually leads me to procrastinate for long periods, or else I get distracted because I've already written it down and don't want to "write" it all again.   I thought that maybe I could use Dragon Dictation to speed up the process and improve my productivity. 

I chose Dragon Dictation because I have friends who use Dragon Naturally Speaking, and have given the software very good reviews.  Also, reviews elsewhere have been good, it supports multiple languages, and there's built in social networking features to post to Twitter and Facebook. 

So I gave it a try. 

And came across some problems. 

Dragon Dictation requires a wifi connection, which I know for sure isn't always available everywhere and very much depends on location. 

Also, it requires clear and concise dictation.   I tested it both in a noisy location, which gave poor results every time, in a quiet location with no background noise, which gave half good results, and in a quiet location with some music playing quietly, which gave half good results.  Speaking as clearly and concise as I could in both quiet locations made no difference to the results; only about half of my words were being translated properly into text. 

Depending on how I am feeling on going through my dictation and editing, this could be beneficial or else it could make little difference to my productivity.  Either way, it demonstrates an inconsistent method of productivity in my schoolwork. 

I think that unless a person has very good speaking and dictation, that this app is not appropriate for most Autistic individuals. 

Talk Assist

Talk Assist is an alternative speech speech aid that provides a voice through text-to-speech software.  It's created by Mubaloo and is free on the iTunes App store.  I know that it's compatible on iPhone, iPod and iPad, but I'm not entirely certain of whether it's available for other devices. 

Now, I'm usually somewhat functional verbally, so I'm not sure how this app works for daily interactions for non-verbal Autistics.  I did run Talk Assist through scenarios where I lose verbal skills and need to use alternative methods of communication. I was able to type in and save several sentences and phrases for future use, making them easier to access in an emergency. 

I found that the controls are simple and user friendly.  I didn't quite like the voice, which is a rather mechanical male voice lacking punctuation.  However, I think that it is a suitable app for at least temporary non-verbal Autistic adults. 

TapToTalk App Review

This one is a bit different in that I found it through a Facebook ad.  TapToTalk is a picture based alternative communication App.  It boasts being completely customizable and affordable.  

This is partly true.  The App is available free for iPod, iPhone, iPad and Nintendo, as well as an App for the computer.  However, these only come with a basic starter album that contains a very limited set of phrases.  In order to utilize the full customizable functions and be able to use your own pictures and create personal albums to fit adult persons, you have to subscribe to the service, which is $99.95 a year, per person. 

Compared to some of the pricing of other communication Apps, and considering the possible long term use of the App, this is more expensive than some of the other Apps available. 

In my opinion, while the various platforms for this App makes it extremely portable, and the customizable options are vast, the long-term pricing makes it unaffordable for persons with limited income.