/ Home / Publications / Awards and Services / Group / Project /

Efficient and Personalised Speech Recognition for Ataxia

Principal Investigator: Prof. Chenghua Lin, University of Manchester Partners: NVIDIA, University College London, University of Strathclyde, and University of Sheffield
Funded by Ataxia UK: Read the news.

About the project

Many people with ataxia experience difficulties with speech, which can make everyday communication challenging. Slurred or unclear speech can affect conversations with family and friends, reduce confidence, and limit social interaction and independence. While voice-controlled technologies are now widely used in daily life, they often struggle to understand speech affected by ataxia, meaning that many people are unable to benefit from these tools.

This project, which will be a collaboration between the University of Manchester, University College London, the University of Sheffield, the University of Strathclyde and NVIDIA, aims to improve this situation by developing speech recognition technology that is better suited to the unique ways people with ataxia speak. Because ataxic speech can vary greatly between individuals and change over time, a “one-size-fits-all” approach does not work well. Instead, this research will focus on creating speech recognition systems that can be personalised to an individual’s speech using only a small amount of recorded speech.

To do this, the project will work with people with ataxia to collect speech data in an ethical and supportive way. The collected data will help researchers develop and test new approaches that make speech recognition more accurate and more inclusive. In the longer term, this work aims to support the development of communication tools that help people with ataxia express themselves more easily, take part in conversations, and improve their quality of life.

Recruiting volunteers — coming soon

We’ll soon be looking for people with ataxia to help us collect speech data, in a supportive, ethical setting. Details on how to take part will be posted here once confirmed.

Get in touch

For more information about taking part, or any questions about the project:

Email: Chenghua Lin chenghua.lin@manchester.ac.uk; Yang Wang yang.wang-2@manchester.ac.uk