Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies (SLPAT)

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Aims. Assistive technologies (AT) enable individuals with disabilities to do things that would otherwise be difficult or impossible for them to do. Especially in cases where a disability affects some mode of communication, speech and language processing techniques could greatly enhance AT. At the same time, researchers in speech and language processing could benefit from investigating techniques appropriate for AT and/or using AT as a testbed. The purpose of this SIG is to promote the application of speech and language technologies to the field of assistive technologies, especially for people whose impairments may affect their abilities to communicate. The group is also affiliated to the Association for Computational Linguistics.

Motivation. Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies is an inherently interdisciplinary endeavor that attracts researchers from such diverse fields as natural language processing (NLP), speech processing, speech pathology, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), human-computer interaction (HCI), and accessibility. SIG-SLPAT works to bring all of these disciplines and researchers together toward a common goal. Together, we can be more effective than the sum of our parts.

Board. Current SIG officers are:

• Chairperson:  Frank Rudzicz (frank@ai.toronto.edu) University of Toronto, Computer Science & Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
• Vice President:  Keith Vertanen (vertanen@mtu.edu)
• Secretary-Treasurer:  François Portet (francois.portet@imag.fr) Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Laboratoire d'Informatique de Grenoble
• Student Member:  Andrew Fowler (fowlera@ohsu.edu) Oregon Health & Science University, Center for Spoken Language Understanding

ISCA-supported events

• SLPAT 2015, 11/9, Dresden, Germany (co-located with Interspeech 2015)
• SLPAT 2014, 26/6, Baltimore, MD, USA (co-located with ACL 2014)
• SLPAT 2013, 21/8-22/8, Grenoble, France (co-located with Interspeech 2013) (proceedings)
• SLPAT 2012, 7/6-8/6, Montréal, Canada (co-located with NAACL HLT 2012) (proceedings)
• SLPAT 2011, 21/8-22/8, University of Edinburgh, Scotland (co-located with EMNLP 2011) (proceedings)
• SLPAT 2010, 5/6, Los Angeles, CA, USA (co-located with NAACL-HLT) (proceedings)

Join the SIG: Email the secretary-treasurer, Frank Rudzicz, at frank at cs.toronto.edu
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