Speech processing aids for the deaf:An overview

Two major obstacles have hindered progress in the development of speech processing aids for the deaf. The first is a lack of basic knowledge as to how speech is acquired, produced, and perceived. The second is a paucity of objective, evaluative data on potentially useful aids. This paper reviews progress in the development of speech processing aids, both for speech perception and for speech training. Progress with training aids is quite promising and reasonably positive evaluative data are currently being obtained. The use of synthetic speech as a research tool in simulating speech problems is discussed and preliminary simulation data are presented.