Speech technology in clinical environments

Traditionally, perceptual judgement of speech disorders by clinicians has been a cornerstone of speech language pathology. Increasingly, it is being argued that acoustic speech analysis should supplement aural perception in the clinic. For successful clinical application of speech technology, experts in acoustic analysis generally agree that a working knowledge of acoustic phonetics, digital signal processing and the literature on the acoustic characteristics of speech disorders are required. However, it is not necessarily compellingly obvious to clinicians. This paper examines the issues by examining how the various components fit into the clinical picture. It examines when and how speech technology can be used by clinicians, arguing that clinicians need to be able to do much more than just operate the system. The paper concludes that successful integration of speech technology into clinical environments provides an opportunity to for technologists and clinicians to work together to produce effective speech technology for clinical applications.