Welcome to the homepage of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Special Interest Group on Speech & Language Processing for Assistive Technologies - SIG-SLPAT (IPA: [splǎt]). The purpose of the SIG is to promote the application of speech and language technologies to the field of Assistive Technologies (especially those designed to enable people whose disabilities affect their communication to participate more fully).

This area is spurring interest in the ACL community as is evident from the two successful workshops on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies that have been associated with ACL-related conferences. The first took place at NAACL 2010, and the second took place at EMNLP 2011. Several related workshops are scheduled for the 2012 research conference cycle. In addition, there has been a rise in interest in communication-related applications that employ language technologies in conferences such as ASSETS: the ACM’s international conference on Assistive Technologies. The TACCESS Journal had a special issue devoted to assistive technologies for communication, and there is a special issue of Computer Speech and Language on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies coming up.

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, human-computer interaction (HCI), and accessibility. Our hope is that SIG-SLPAT will be the lynchpin that brings all of these disciplines together.

SLPAT 2011 talk