Time after timetmt play, I’ve tried to use Apple’s Siri or its speech-to-text function, only for it to fail to understand my stutter.
For people like me, the voice technology that is a part of so many people’s everyday lives can feel all but useless. Telling Alexa to play a song or asking Siri for directions can be almost impossible whenever prolonged (“Aaaaaaaaa-lexa”) or chopped (“Hey … Si … ri!”) sounds cause the devices to misunderstand my commands or stop listening altogether.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, about 7.5 million people in the United States also “have trouble using their voices” because of disorders like stuttering or speech-altering conditions caused by cerebral palsy.
Voice assistants could radically improve our lives. Their inaccessibility could even be dangerous for those with mobile disabilities, who could rely on voice assistants to call for help. Instead, they often fail to understand us.
“My speech is slow, and I slur some words,” said Dagmar Munn, a retired wellness instructor who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She uses a walker with wheels and has dysarthria, in which weakened muscles lead to impaired speech. She said she had trouble using Alexa and Google Assistant, technologies that, as her condition progresses, she may rely on even more for help with tasks like adjusting the temperature in her home and turning on the lights.
“Although I am careful to enunciate and carefully pronounce a command, the device stops listening by my second word. I just can’t speak fast enough to satisfy the preset listening time,” Ms. Munn said. “The novelty quickly wore off when I really needed the device to respond.”
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