A speech communication aid for the vocally handicapped containing an unlimited text-to-speech synthesizer (MULTIVOX built into a laptop, notebook etc.) and a special text-creator program (VOXAID) for quick text generation for communication will be introduced. The input of this communication aid is text (from the keyboard) and the output is synthetic speech. The VOXAID software offers two forms for communication, a simple level with limited vocabulary (mainly for hospital environments) and an advanced level (for trained keyboard users) of creating unlimited texts. Telephone conversations can be performed by the system too. Synthetic speech can be transmitted to the microphone of a telephone receiver by means of an acoustic adaptor. Testing of this system is going on in a hospital in Hungary. Further examinations will be carried out in Hungary and abroad, supported by the COST-219 European project.

Keywords: speech synthesis, vocally handicapped, text creator, vocal communication