PC-based telephone communications system for deaf-blind people

A system has been developed that allows deaf-blind people to communicate with others by a standard telephone set. It uses speech processing technologies integrated in a PC (personal computer). The handicapped person can activate or receive a telephone communication, entering sentences by typing on a Braille terminal and receiving the messages on a Braille tactile display. A text-to-speech subsystem converts the typed sentences into voice, and a connected-word voice recognizer converts the vocal answer into text and then into a Braille message. Results of a field trial of the system carried out in an Italian community of handicapped people are reported