In Their Own Voices
From: Speech Technology Magazine - Nov/Dec-2010 - page 34
By: Kathleen Savino

Hope Technology School gives autistic students a new way to be hear

On the same street as Stanford University, in Palo Alto, CA, is another
school you’ve probably never heard of: Hope Technology School. Hope
Technology’s student body comprises a mix of disabled and nondisabled
students in grades pre-K through eight. Many of the disabled students are
autistic and often have difficulty verbalizing even basic needs. 

AAC, or augmented and alternative communication, devices are used to help
autistic people communicate. Some of them convert text to speech so a message
can be typed and then spoken by an automated voice. While invaluable to many,
these devices also have certain drawbacks. For starters, purchasing them
often needs to go through a liaison, and then specialized training to use it
is required. The devices also can’t integrate new material from the Internet
or other applications. In other words, they are useful, but somewhat limited
and expensive. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.speechtechmag.com/Articles/Editorial/Deployments/In-Their-Own-Voices-70982.aspx

Links:
Hope Technology School
http://www.hopetechschool.org/content/home/index.htm
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/accessibility/Hope_Tech_Lo-res.pdf