Amiga gives her a voice

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 29

Amiga gives her a voice

e Twenty - two - year - '■ old Lois Pickering, of Auckland has been dis- • abled since birth by i cerebral palsy. She is - wheelchair-bound, unable to use her hands, and unable to talk. However, through the use of a Commodore • Amiga microcomputer Lois is able both to communicate and to pursue vocational training in a : flexible and independent manner. The Amiga possesses sophisticated speech simulation, which produces a human-sounding robotic voice. According s to the Auckland branch v of the New Zealand Crippled Children Society, the voice facility is I easier to understand than comparable products and is able to reduce to a minimum the barriers between operator and audience. A spokesman for the society said the Amiga’s multi-tasking ability

(running separate programs concurrently) made it easy for the disabled to move from one program to another. Lois began using an Amiga when she became a regular user of the Auckland Crippled Children Society’s computer unit in July. She operates it with her feet and toes and, in this way, has boosted her written and spoken communication skills while also using the Amiga’s graphic facility for artistic selfexpression, the society says. “Lois is a determined and highly intelligent lady who with the help of a machine has broken down many of the barriers between her and other people,” Mr lan Morrison of the Crippled Children Society, said.

An interested observer at the Crippled Children Society recently was Mr Nick Bessey, vice-presi-

dent of Commodore Business Machines (International). Mr Bessey said he was most impressed by what the society had accomplished in its computer department. “New Zealand must be a world leader in this aspect of computer education and utilisation,” he said. “I can’t think of any other institution that has so comprehensively taken advantage of the Amiga’s facilities to release the potential that many disabled people have locked inside them.” Mr Bessey backed his praise with the gift of a second Amiga to the Auckland branch of the society. The society had been a pioneer in the use of high tech to help disabled people towards communication skills, expanded career opportunities and lives of greater dignity and independence, Mr Morrison said.