Voice4Me is one of the free programs available at the SchoolFreeware website. It’s a very basic AAC program for users who have trouble speaking – users can click on a picture to speak the associated text, or type text into a box and then click on the ‘speak’ button.
There’s a comprehensive introduction to this program available on the YouTube website, including configuration instructions:
The program is very limited in how much it can be configured – you must have both the picture and the text areas, and the number and size of the pictures can’t be varied. The program also can’t be controlled by keyboard alone if you want to access the pictures, so it’s not usable with any combination of switches which is unfortunate. On the plus side it’s free and once it’s set up it’s fairly easy to use. If you have no access to other AAC software this could be helpful.
Website: Voice4Me
- Ricky Buchanan
Thanks Ricky,
I’ll have to explore this one.
I downloaded this app in Windows XP and am unable to save Picture edits. I get the message, “SaveAsPicture doesn’t support format 151 in windows.” I was very excited to see this freeware as my daugher has disabilities. Is there a workaround for this error? thanks so much!!
@Tracey: Sorry, this site only deals with Mac software and I really don’t have the first idea what that error might be. Have you tried different formats of picture, like BMP and GIF and JPG? Otherwise, I suggest you go to the Voice4Me website and email the authors of the program. Best of luck.
Hi Ricky,
That site has some other quite nice goodies for our new Mac book.
The Voice4Me works fine on XP SP3 with SAPI 5 voices installed (Aussie ones).
Another good freeware PC based AAC app is Etriloquist (www.etriloquist.com).
It allows people to save their own speech, recordings, or use text to speech. It also uses a customizable hierarchical category structure and a limited number of prestored stuff can be recalled via keyboard shortcuts.
Dave
I was trying to use this program with my daughter’s computer.. However, the operating system on her computer is Windows 7 and it must not be compatible. Can you direct me to the correct website/person to contact? I don’t see a specific site for Voice4Me…
Thanks so much!
@Monica: The Voice4Me website is http://schoolfreeware.com/Voice4Me.html and they have download links there for the Windows versions. The highest listed version is Windows XP though, so I don’t know if it would work with Windows 7.
Hi Ricky
Voice4Me is my favorite simple AAC to get people started. Is there any plan to make it available for the IPad? How can I find out?
Thanks
Susan