Simple Speech, affordable AAC software for Windows Platform
http://www.palsoftwaredesigns.com/
When I first came across their website, I was a little apprehensive, because it has neither the company's physical address nor telephone number. It only has a paypal sign for credit card payment, the name of its CEO, Jose A. Oritz, and a rather vague statement that the company is based in Brooklyn New York. True, many small companies that produce softwares aiming at niche market tend to use this model to minimize operating expenses - and trust me AAC software definitely qualifies as a niche market, Paypal payment and direct download afterwards, no mess, no fuss. But then, most companies do at least give their physical address and telephone number to give an impression of legitimacy, even fraudulent websites give that much. So readers cannot blame me for being over cautious.
To cut a long story short, I took a chance, and bought a copy for testing. It works very much like proloquo2go from assistware and dynavox's mighty mo; it also comes with a full set of Dynavox PEC pictures. However, it does not include a voice engine, so it will use whatever voice engine readers happen to have installed. Hence, if all you have is the infamous Microsoft Sam, then Sam would have to do.
I like the software, because school districts are more likely to buy softwares for Windows Platform than buy an iPod for $200.00 or an iPad for $500.00 for a software for $189.00. The disadvantage is that even with the latest Tablet Windows PC, the software may still not be as portable as an iPod Touch or iPad. So there is something of a trade off there. But if you can afford $45.00 for IVONA 2 Text to Speech Engine and another $49.00 for Simple Speech, you can turn any Windows platform PC into a rather pleasing AAC device.
When I first came across their website, I was a little apprehensive, because it has neither the company's physical address nor telephone number. It only has a paypal sign for credit card payment, the name of its CEO, Jose A. Oritz, and a rather vague statement that the company is based in Brooklyn New York. True, many small companies that produce softwares aiming at niche market tend to use this model to minimize operating expenses - and trust me AAC software definitely qualifies as a niche market, Paypal payment and direct download afterwards, no mess, no fuss. But then, most companies do at least give their physical address and telephone number to give an impression of legitimacy, even fraudulent websites give that much. So readers cannot blame me for being over cautious.
To cut a long story short, I took a chance, and bought a copy for testing. It works very much like proloquo2go from assistware and dynavox's mighty mo; it also comes with a full set of Dynavox PEC pictures. However, it does not include a voice engine, so it will use whatever voice engine readers happen to have installed. Hence, if all you have is the infamous Microsoft Sam, then Sam would have to do.
I like the software, because school districts are more likely to buy softwares for Windows Platform than buy an iPod for $200.00 or an iPad for $500.00 for a software for $189.00. The disadvantage is that even with the latest Tablet Windows PC, the software may still not be as portable as an iPod Touch or iPad. So there is something of a trade off there. But if you can afford $45.00 for IVONA 2 Text to Speech Engine and another $49.00 for Simple Speech, you can turn any Windows platform PC into a rather pleasing AAC device.
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