#17: Voice Interfaces/Recognition: How voice-enabled tech can maximize inclusiveness
Voice technology is a powerful digital tool, far more versatile than many realize. Advances in speech recognition and related tech offer outstanding levels of accessibility and inclusiveness to organizations working on civic projects and public engagement. While Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant may be the most recognizable uses of voice technology, there are plenty more voice tools to explore. By creating guides or skills (voice-driven capabilities), government agencies and nonprofits can use voice assistants to share information with communities and collect feedback and commentary from users.
Voice technology has existed in some form for more than 20 years, but only recently have organizations started to uncover more practical everyday uses. For instance, voice technology can be used to transcribe voice to text in real-time, offering live captions for those with limited hearing. Similarly, voice technology can be used to read text aloud for those with impaired vision.
What is voice technology?
Voice technology, at its core, refers to a computer program connected to a speaker and microphone that can listen to and understand what people say and respond vocally in-kind. It can be as simple as dictating a document instead of typing or as complex as voice assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant, which simulate person-to-person conversation.
Voice tech has a profound capacity to improve accessibility for those who might otherwise have difficulty accessing or relaying information. Here are just a few examples of how voice tech can be used to boost inclusivity:
Transcribe meetings into real-time captions and compile complete transcripts
Answer questions about public transportation schedules in real-time
Create voice skills to share information on governmental services and events
Enable those who are unable to articulate to communicate verbally with text-to-speech tools that synthesize the sound of their voice
The power of voice tech for creating inclusiveness is increasingly recognized as the public becomes more comfortable listening and communicating with the technology. For instance, the State of Mississippi made an Alexa skill that tells residents when their driver's license expires and helps them locate government services. Idaho created a virtual assistant that answered questions about voting procedures ahead of last year's election. Imagine the uses for voice technology in a public meeting or workshop.
What are the benefits of voice tech?
What makes voice tech worthwhile for public engagement and communication?
Provide real-time answers. Voice assistants are designed to do exactly what the name suggests: assist people with answers to their questions. Connecting a website to an official town voice skill could make it easier and quicker for people to find out the latest on local public projects, learn about upcoming events or check public transportation schedules.
Receive feedback from the community. Voice apps don't just answer questions. They can ask them, too. Officials and organizations can use them to share the latest news, ask the public what they think and collect input on-the-spot, without requiring respondents to fill out and submit a form.
Support socially distanced outreach. Public engagement shifted online due to the pandemic, both increasing reach and creating unwanted communication gaps. Not only can voice technology transcribe and share what is said in real-time, but it can also read documents and other outreach materials aloud for those unable to view them.
Speaking up
Voice technology has gone from awkward and inaccurate to smooth and mostly error-free in just a few years. The need for better accessibility and inclusiveness in public communication and engagement, especially in the wake of the pandemic, is spurring new interest in applying it to those needs. Translating spoken words to text (or vice-versa) and packaging information in voice apps for Alexa and Google Assistant could be a considerable boost to providing access to people who may otherwise have difficulty with anything from sharing their views aloud at a public meeting to checking when the next bus at their nearest stop will arrive.
Interested in using voice tech in your outreach? Give us a call today.
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