The Cost x Performance Tradeoff for Voice Output AAC Aids: Is It Real?

The cost of voice output AAC aids is still too high, which prevents many persons with speech impairments to benefit from this technology. However, advances in speech coding techniques and in microelectronics (integrated circuit complexity, and packaging and mounting technology), have enabled new solutions which will in the short future provide a generalized access to voice output AAC aids. This paper presents the basic issues dealing with the technology of voiceoutput communication aids, describes two new types of solutions based on very low-cost technology and highlights the implications which can be brought to the AAC field itself if a truly generalized access to high-complexity and lowcost voice output devices effectively becomes real.