Speech intelligibility of two voice output communication aids

The purpose of the study was to investigate the intelligibility of two voice output communication aids. Twenty words and 20 sentences, synthesized with the Personal Communicator and with the SpeechPAC, were presented to 20 listeners. Listener transcriptions of the stimuli were used to compare the intelligibility of the two communication aids. Analysis of variance revealed significantly higher intelligibility scores for the Personal Communicator compared to the SpeechPAC and higher scores for sentences than for words. The implications of these findings for selection of augmentative communication devices is discussed.