July 1, 2025
Announcement of AImpower.org's partnership with the Speech Accessibility Project to collect stuttered speech for more inclusive speech AI.
March 10, 2025
Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems have long struggled to accurately recognize and process stuttered speech, largely due to their training on fluency-biased datasets. As a result, people who stutter (PWS) frequently encounter challenges when using voice-activated technologies, automated transcription services, and other speech-based AI tools. This lack of inclusivity and […]
March 5, 2025
Summary and reflection on the recent design challenge AImpower.org co-hosted with UC Santa Cruz, on designing inclusive and empowering speech data collection tools for grassroots stuttered speech collection.
November 18, 2024
By Shaomei Wu The ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW) has been the home for community-driven, socially conscious research on computing technologies and their impact on the global society. Several of my previous work on AI-powered accessibility innovations were published on CSCW, such as the Automatic […]
November 7, 2024
By Charan Sridhar (Research & Engineering Intern at AImpower.org) Introduction to Speech to Text Software Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) technologies are something most of us take for granted. These technologies process spoken language and convert it into written text, and most of us use them nearly every day through tools […]
March 13, 2024
Challenges with videoconferencing In this post-pandemic era, videoconferencing has become a prominent medium of communication in both our professional and personal lives. This shift, while bringing many conveniences, also introduces a set of challenges such as reduced non-verbal cues, turn-taking confusion, distractions, and heightened self-consciousness which can lead to “Zoom […]
February 20, 2024
By Shaomei Wu I was very excited to speak at American Association for Advancements in Science’s Annual Meeting last week in Denver, with the support and sponsorship from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). This year’s meeting theme is “Science without Walls”, which aligns so well with AImpower.org’s mission to dismantle […]
September 22, 2023
As we enter the era of remote and hybrid work, videoconferencing has become an essential for today's workplace. While telecommunication technologies are often optimized for efficiency and productivity, the emotional experience of communication is often under supported.
At AImpower, we work with the stuttering community to investigate and re-invent videoconferencing technologies to promote an inclusive and empowering virtual meeting experience, that fosters empathy, authenticity, a sense of belonging, and emotional connections. Ran, our head of product, shares some insights into our journey of developing products that enhance virtual conferencing experiences for individuals with diverse speaking abilities.
July 25, 2023
We report our experience hosting the "Claim Your Virtual Presence" workshop at National Stuttering Association (NSA) conference, and share the strategies and best practices for inclusive video conferencing.