A comparison of the single word intelligibility of two voice output communication aids

Abstract

The intelligibility of Voice Output Communication Aids (VOCAs) has been a rarely investigated aspect of device performance. This investigation utilized the Modified Rhyme Test (House et al., 1965) for the comparison of single word intelligibility between two popular VOCAs and a natural speaker. Results indicate that naive adult listeners achieved significantly better word recognition scores for the natural speech condition compared with either of the two VOCA conditions. No significant differences were found for frequency or type of phoneme errors between the two VOCAs.

• assistive devices
• augmentative/alternative communication
• intelligibility
• speech output
• speech synthesis
• voice synthesis