July 05, 2018 | Press Release.pdf

Community Options Partners with Voiceitt to Implement State-of-the-Art Speech App

PRINCETON, NJ – Community Options has been known to be ahead of the curve in providing the best and most modern support to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. That rings true again as the national nonprofit has partnered with Voiceitt to implement Talkitt, a speech app for individuals.

The Talkitt mobile application is a voice recognition and translation app that aims to help people with speech impairments use their voice to communicate. Unlike any other voice recognition app, Talkitt learns the impediments of the user and ultimately clears garbled speech, thereby transcending the language and disability level that is unique to the individual.

“Voiceitt and Red Ribbon Academy I & II have so much in common. Red Ribbon Academies are the first of its kind in New Jersey to develop innovative state-of-the-art programs like no other. This is why we are so excited about the Talkitt speech app because it will forever change the lives of the individuals we support that are non-verbal, have vocal limitation, or speech impairments,” said Ayesha S. Patrick, Community Options Regional State Director, who is in charge of the Red Ribbon Academies. “The technology and methodology that Talkitt will offer the individuals we support to now incorporate their physical and visual communication into a ‘Voice’ that will be heard loud and clear through spoken language. This is so amazing!”

Unlike standard speech recognition technology, Talkitt is speaker-dependent and works in any single language. The app works with any spectrum of speech severity from mild to extremely severe, due to its innovative pattern recognition software. Before an individual begins using Talkitt, their speech is benchmarked for clarity using a series of vocabulary and simple phrase pretests.

Community Options will utilize Talkitt at their Red Ribbon Academy Programs, which provides support for the most severe and fragile medical disabilities in a way that fosters growth and progress. The goal of the Red Ribbon Academies is to improve the quality of life in a nurturing and caring medical environment that treats individuals with respect, warmth, and compassion, while encouraging them to reach their highest potential.

“Community Options Enterprises and Red Ribbon I & II continues to break down barriers and stigmas for individuals with Intellectual Disabilities,” said Patrick. “Partnering with Voiceitt, who is aligned with our mission and has given new-found hope to our individuals by creating Talkitt, is a true testimony that we will stop at nothing to continue to make a difference and improve the lives of the individuals we support.”

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About Community Options, Inc.:

For over 30 years, Community Options has developed housing and employment programs for people with disabilities – serving thousands of people through over 40 offices across 11 states. Community Options provides advocacy assistance to empower people with disabilities because all people – regardless of ability level – should live and work in the community with dignity, choice and self-determination. For more information please visit our website: www.comop.org and to follow along with the ComOpCares campaign, search #ComOpCares on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.