Award winning technology company Therapy Box today announces its collaboration with Acapela Group, in releasing the latest version of augmentative communication app Predictable to be compatible with Acapela’s my-own-voice service.

(London, March 14, 2019)

Therapy Box’s Predictable app is used in 10 languages around the world by people with significant communication disabilities arising from conditions such as motor neuron disease/ALS, stroke, cerebral palsy and autism. Since being launched in 2011 the app has received numerous accolades recognizing its innovative inclusive design. This new implementation of the Acapela my-own-voice enables people in many of the regions using Predictable, to bank their voice with Acapela and use it directly in Predictable. For individuals diagnosed with speech or language disorders – resulting from ALS or other conditions such as aphasia, dysarthria or apraxia – capturing the essence of their voice before losing it is a crucial step in preserving their identity.

The collaboration between Acapela and Therapy Box brings together the key components for people wanting to bank their voices and use it within a mobile app. The teams have worked together closely to enable this streamlined process.

“Launched 4 years ago, my-own-voice is more frequently being adopted by people living with ALS. The product is gaining in visibility and number of users is growing very fast. Recent innovations based on machine learning with Acapela DNN allow users to create their own voice very easily, even if their voice is damaged and low energy levels make recording difficult”, says Nicolas Mazars, head of the Inclusive Business Unit at Acapela Group, “The key issue for individuals is to record as soon as possible after ALS diagnosis. The partnership with Therapy Box is essential to Acapela to keep on its way to provide a voice for everyone, working closely with AAC experts and setting up a full efficient and smart eco system for the end users. We look forward to develop our joint actions with Therapy Box based on their high-end Predictable product and provide an efficient solution to end users.”

“This innovation offers voice banking for people speaking English (with variants to address patients from US, UK and Australian accent), French (France and Canada), Spanish (North America and Spain),  Dutch (The Netherlands and Belgium), Swedish, Norwegian, and German, who use Predictable.  “We are incredibly pleased that we can offer the opportunity for people to bank their voices and use it in Predictable,” Rebecca Bright MBE from Therapy Box shares, “This will meet the needs of non-English speaking customers of Predictable, which makes things equitable and truly inclusive”.

Therapy Box will release the compatible version in April 2019 – Predictable on AppStore

About Therapy Box

The multi award winning technology company is at the forefront of bring innovation to accessible and inclusive products for people with disabilities. Its flagship app Predictable is available in 10 languages and assists countless people with significant disabilities to communicate their basic needs and have meaningful conversation. Founded by Rebecca Bright MBE and Swapnil Gadgil the company has won numerous accolades including the Queens Award for Enterprise: Innovation and the 2018 Virgin Media VOOM Award. Link to Therapy Box website.

About Acapela Group

Acapela Group is a European leader of voice solutions with 30 years of expertise and market feedback, strong partnerships, deep rooted R&D, an enthusiastic team and a strong appetite for innovation. In order to meet a growing demand for specific voice solutions adapted to accessibility markets, Acapela Group created a division dedicated to inclusiveness with an initial specific focus on speech impairments, learning disabilities, visual impairments and for meeting the specific needs of seniors. Acapela Inclusive aims to provide everyone, whatever their disability or impairment, with a voice, to help them live more independently through easy access to technology.  

Team Gleason is proud to add another powerful option to its toolkit of technology solutions for people living with ALS. My-Own-Voice is a voice banking option that captures the essence of a person’s voice before they lose it due to ALS or other degenerative diseases.

New Orleans, LA – February 1st, 2019
Steve Gleason had the opportunity to create his own synthetic voice through the process of voice banking when he was first diagnosed with ALS in 2011. It has been one of Steve and Team Gleason’s missions to help others maintain their unique voices through voice banking. Since launching its voice banking program, Team Gleason has provided hundreds of voices to the ALS community. Through this exciting partnership, the group’s goal is to help empower even more people to create their own unique voice.

Launched 4 years ago by the Acapela Group, My-Own-Voice offers people the opportunity to preserve a person’s voice identity, even if their voice is damaged and low energy levels make recording difficult. The digital voice can be used with an assistive device to read any sentence, keeping the essence of the original in terms of timbre, accent, and intonation. Their individual voice and way of speaking are instantly recognizable.

“I often say, until there is a medical cure, technology will be that cure. Stated another way, most of what ALS takes away, technology can give back,” says Steve Gleason. He added, “losing my voice was by far, one of the most difficult things to process. Having “banked” my physical voice made it dramatically easier to adjust. I am proud Team Gleason is adding another solution for people living with ALS.”

“We are very proud to be part of the Team Gleason’s product shortlist. This rewards our work and reinforces our will to keep giving a voice to everyone,” said Nicolas Mazars, Manager of Acapela Inclusive. “Our voice banking solution is only turning 4, but has already spanned a long journey. Since the launch in March 2015, hundreds of voices have been created. In 2018, more than 200 patients enrolled in the program and this number is constantly increasing thanks to our partnership with several VA centers in the USA, Nav (Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration), as well as the precious support of John Costello at Boston Children’s Hospital,” he continued. “Our new partnership with Team Gleason is a major milestone for us and we are looking forward to helping more and more people living with ALS keep their voice personas.”

Innovation: Your digital voice based on DNN technology

Progress in voice technology and Artificial intelligence signifies that patients with speech impairments can now benefit from improved message or voice banking; the resulting voices are very similar to their own. A voice signal and persona can be created from scratch, based on only a few minutes of speech recordings.
DNN (Deep Neural Networks) have revolutionized artificial vision and automatic speech recognition. This machine learning revolution is keeping its promises as it enters the digital voice arena. It is leading to better performance, more intelligibility and consistency. With Acapela DNN, we can now create a digital version of a person’s voice using only a few minutes of existing recordings (message banking) or new speech recordings (voice banking).

About Team Gleason:

Team Gleason Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit based in New Orleans, LA. Team Gleason was founded by former New Orleans Saints player, Steve Gleason, after his diagnosis with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in 2011. Team Gleason aims to provide individuals with ALS with leading edge technology, equipment and services, to create a global conversation about ALS, and to raise public awareness towards ALS by providing and documenting extraordinary life adventures for individuals with muscular diseases or injuries. www.TeamGleason.org

About Acapela Group:

Acapela Group is a European leader of voice solutions with 30 years of expertise and market feedback, strong partnerships, deep rooted R&D, an enthusiastic team and a strong appetite for innovation.
In order to meet a growing demand for specific voice solutions adapted to accessibility markets, Acapela Group created a division dedicated to inclusiveness with an initial specific focus on speech impairments, learning disabilities, visual impairments and for meeting the specific needs of seniors. Acapela Inclusive aims to provide everyone, whatever their disability or impairment, with a voice, to help them live more independently through easy access to technology.

Progress in voice technology means patients with speech impairments can now benefit from improved voice banking; the resulting voices are very like their own. A voice signal and persona can be created from scratch, based on only a few minutes of speech recordings.

My-own-voice online service offers individuals diagnosed with speech or language disorders – resulting from ALS or other conditions such as aphasia, dysarthria or apraxia – the possibility
to create their own digital voice.

Acapela DNN technology represents a major advance in our core technology, it opens the path to a new chapter for my-own-voice, the voice banking solution that offers all patients the possibility
to preserve their voice identity, even if their voice is damaged and low energy levels make recording difficult.

Creating a digital copy of your voice

Users can keep speaking and communicating using not only speech synthesis but their very own voice, which has been synthetically re-created, helping them maintain their identity.

Innovation: Digital voice based on DNN technology

DNN (Deep Neural Networks) have revolutionized artificial vision and automatic speech recognition. This machine learning revolution is keeping its promises as it enters the digital
voice arena. It is leading to better performance, accuracy and consistency.

Acapela Group is actively working on DNN. With Acapela DNN, we can now create a digital version of a person’s voice using only a few minutes of existing recordings (message banking) or new speech recordings (voice banking).

Acapela my-own-voice – the new version

The Acapela DNN engine is a major component of the new version of my-own-voice. The enhanced my-own-voice delivers voices very much like the user’s own. The voice can be used with an assistive device to read any sentence, keeping the essence of the original in terms of timbre, accent and intonation. The voice and way of speaking are instantly recognizable.

My-own-voice including DNN technology is offered in 13 languages: Dutch, Dutch (Belgium), English (Australia), English (UK), English (US), French, French (Canada),
German, Italian, North American Spanish, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish.

Check out the website https://mov.acapela-group.com/

Check out the video made by John Costello, Director of Boston Children’s Hospital’s
Augmentative Communication Program, using and commenting on his own voice created with my-own-voice.

More affordable for the community

Acapela my-own-voice was initially released in 2015. Since then, Acapela has gathered feedback from patients, vendors, clinics and other institutions in order to provide the community with a more affordable and flexible service.

My-own-voice has been improved but the concept remains the same. Each patient is able to create a voice to test online through a type&talk demo. The voice, once purchased, can be used in Windows and Android (both as a system voice) or iOS (bundled with an application).

About Acapela Inclusive

In order to meet a growing demand for specific voice solutions adapted to accessibility markets, Acapela Group has created a division dedicated to inclusiveness with an initial
specific focus on speech impairments, learning disabilities, visual impairments and meeting the needs of seniors.

Acapela Inclusive aims to provide everyone, whatever their disability or impairment, with a voice, to help them live more independently through easy access to technology.

Press contact: press@acapela-group.com

In order to meet growing demands for specific voice solutions adapted to Accessibility markets, Acapela Group is creating a division dedicated to Inclusiveness with an initial specific focus on speech impairments, learning disabilities, visual impairments and meeting the needs of seniors.

Acapela Inclusive aims to provide everyone, whatever their disability or impairment, with a voice, to help them live more independently through easy access to technology.

Acapela has been inventing speech solutions for 30 years to provide users with access to information, to enable communication, to give people a voice to express their thoughts and desires, to help users participate in social conversation, preserve their personal voice identity, thrive in their educational aims, and much more. Acapela voices can either speak or read content, in 34 languages. Acapela creates authentic voices that express meaning and intent, with emotions and moods, for all ages, for children, women and men. Over 100 voices are ready to speak, producing a natural and pleasant audio result.

‘Our company has been present for decades in the Accessibility market, helping users live and succeed in their everyday environments. We have established strong relationships with the whole community – including partners, institutions, customers, distributors, end users- and our voices ease the daily life of thousands of people around the world. Our expertise, the ongoing ground- breaking innovations in the voice area and our capability to create voices for everyone in new ways means we are in an optimal position to create original, dynamic solutions for all end users of all ages, from kids to seniors’, says Nicolas Mazars, who is heading the new Business Unit.

Acapela is proud of its unique voice track of children’s voices which allows young speech impaired users around the world to express their thoughts and desires with a voice that reflects their age. Our voices enable visually impaired users to access content with the same ease as sighted users through programmes which have been ambitious and challenging to create and implement. With my-own-voice, people about to lose their voice can preserve it as a synthetic copy. And last but not least, the latest innovations with DNN and Deep Learning are opening the way to new opportunities.

For more information: http://www.acapela-group.com/acapela-inclusive