I volunteer at a charity that helps disabled people learn new skills. I have bought a Raspberry Pi2 as a personal project but haven’t done much more than install Raspbian using NOOBS. We have someone (A) whose speech is very hard to understand, however he can use the computer to type and use the mouse. We have another person (B) who is using speech recognition with Windows to control the computer, though sometimes he has trouble with it, he has to write using typing mode with the phonetic alphabet as the recognition isn’t so great. (B) has no mobility (can just about use the joystick on electric wheelchair to control it) so can't use a mouse or keyboard, still has a good mind and speech is only slightly impaired but very much understandable.
I was just wondering what sort of applications the raspberry pi community has come up with for people with disabilities. Is there anything that could help with peoples speech? Both use wheelchairs so maybe something could be rigged up to them.
I don't know that the Pi community has come up with anything, but since Raspbian is a tuned version of Debian (which is to say, a Linux distribution), at least in theory any Linux program could be compiled to run on a Pi. Since the Pi doesn't have any audio input built in, if you need that, you'd have to add some for of audio device for that function.
The raspberry-vi (Visually Impaired) group are moving ahead ,mainly with Blind-Assistance, but have a great deal of expertise with speech control & synthesis using the Pi/2.
Also consult After- Sight.com which is a startup presently prototyping a wearable Pi/2 system which will offer navigation, Wifi, object recognition, .speaking......in fact anything that a smartphone might offer.
Again, this is a site catering for blind persons , but there should be room " on the platform " for fellow travellers.
Take note, that the After-Sight project aims to deliver the product at absolute minimum cost.
Can someone give me directions to contact this group - the vi group?
You will see the amount of work they are putting into this worthwhile project.
Lots of stuff to digest !!!
I think that useful tools for disabilities are well made of rather high performance PC's with big databases of such speech and recognition and also finger movement.
And so with such sophisticated disability aids that will be developed with your experiences as person A and B etc., Raspberry Pi's are well learned and found as useful tools for such disabilities by your supports and contributions.