The National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) has developed the NALscribe iPad app to make communication easier for people struggling to hear. It continuously transcribes speech into large, easy-to-read text on an iPad screen in real time and is available to hearing healthcare clinics, organisations and individuals, is free to download and use
NAL director, Dr Brent Edwards said the app follows NAL’s earlier innovative solutions that help hearing aid users better understand the speech of people wearing masks.
“Our research over the past two years has identified the unique problems facing people with hearing loss during the pandemic,” he said. “The app is designed to help improve communication for people with hearing loss, particularly when there are additional barriers such as when masks are worn.”
The app has been trialled in hearing clinics across Australia, at service counters and during appointments and feedback has been positive.
Hearing Australia client, Michelle Farina, was pleased to see this technology offered in a clinic as it was valuable for confirming information communicated by clinical staff.
“I found the live captioning on the tablet beneficial and any words I missed hearing were captured on the tablet. This would also be useful during appointments where a professional person is unable to remove their mask to enable a person with hearing disability to lip read,” she said.
“I went to hospital recently and medical staff were not able to remove their masks and live captioning on a tablet was not available. As a result, they had to painstakingly write down all the questions they needed to ask me.”
Key features on NALscribe include:
- Online and offline speech recognition modes
- Available in 11 languages
- Offline speech recognition mode for increased data privacy and using anywhere
- Adherence to accessibility guidelines improves usability for people with disability
- Transcriptions can be saved, edited and shared via other platforms
- Translation of captions (*iOS 15 required)
- Available on the App Store.