Non-profit Offers Workshops to Help Service Providers Assist People With Speech Disabilities

The Listening Equity Project trains service providers to assist people with communication disabilities that are not caused by hearing loss. The project is led by the non-profit SPACE, which stands for Stuttering, People, Arts, Community, Education. SPACE offers listening workshops that cover the use of AI on phone systems.

Aidan Sank, executive director and co-founder of SPACE, said people with communication disabilities are being interrupted, having their sentences finished, and sometimes hung up on during phone calls. More than 440,000 Canadians have significant speech, language and communication disabilities not caused by hearing loss, according to Communication Disabilities Access Canada.

Those disabilities can stem from conditions including cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, brain injury, aphasia, dementia, ALS, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.

James Larsen suffered a stroke at age 43 nearly 16 years ago and lost his ability to speak. He now lives with aphasia. "When you try to say anything, I get frustrated inside the brain, even though they say I'm intelligent still, but my speech does not want to work," Larsen told CBC's On The Coast.

Automated phone systems are particularly difficult for Larsen. "It takes us that second to understand what the computer is saying to us," he said. While he is coming up with an answer, the automation often moves on, causing further confusion.

Larsen said it is easier for him to speak to someone in person or over video chat with no distractions on either side. "Turn off the radio, turn off the TV, turn off all the sound so you can just talk one to one," he said. Sank said anyone who speaks a little differently ends up navigating a system set up for people who are fluent and can listen and speak quickly.