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 the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Special Interest Group on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technology (SLPAT) shall be to promote interest in applying speech and language processing technologies to the general area of AT; to promote an interdisciplinary approach to speech and language processing for AT that includes an understanding of and an appreciation for the user populations for which the technologies are developed; to provide members of the ACL with a special interest in AT with a means of exchanging news of recent research developments and other matters of interest in AT; and to sponsor meetings and workshops in speech and language processing for AT that appear to be timely and worthwhile, operating within the framework of the ACL's general guidelines for SIGs.