Proloquo 2
by AssistiveWare
Gives Mac users who cannot speak a voice
Proloquo is a multilingual speech and communication solution for Mac OS X.
Proloquo Benefits Overview
- A full-fledged communication system (AAC) for people who cannot speak
- Provides speech feedback in any application while typing for children and people with learning disabilities
- Can serve as a talking word processor
- Provides an advanced, multilingual speech engine for KeyStrokes onscreen keyboard and SwitchXS switch access solution.
“Proloquo provides the kind of augmentative communication I always hoped for. Now, for the first time after I lost my own voice due to ALS/MND, even new acquaintances and older persons understand me with ease. People like my new voice. I like getting rid of the additional hardware and using just my PowerBook and Mac OS X. Without Proloquo for speech and KeyStrokes for typing I would no longer be able to work!” – Walter Pfrommer, former Paediatric Surgeon, now Medical Adviser in a healthcare IT project
Click here to view larger screenshots and a slide show
Click here to watch video of Marie-France, who has lost her voice and can only move a jaw muscle because of Motor Neurone Disease (ALS), also known as Motor Neurone Disease (MND) or Lou Gherigs Disease, uses AssistiveWare’s Proloquo, KeyStrokes and SwitchXS to access her computer and communicate with others.
Proloquo includes natural-sounding Infovox iVox voices for a language of choice. The languages currently available include UK English, US English, American Spanish, Czech, Canadian French, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Icelandic, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish and Turkish. Infovox iVox provides voices that work not only in Proloquo but system-wide. Finally, Proloquo of course works with all the built-in voices of Mac OS X.
Click on a link below to hear an Infovox iVox voice sample.
| UK English voices
Peter (male) | US English voices
Heather (female) | German voices | Dutch voices |
| Flemish voices | French voices
Alice (female) |
Spanish voices
Maria (female) |
Italian voices |
| Norwegian voices | Canadian French voices
Louise (female) |
Portuguese voices
Celia (female) Marcia (female) |
Greek voices
Dimitris (male) |
| Danish voices | Finnish voices | Swedish voices | Czech voices |
| Polish voices
Ania (female) |
Turkish voices
Ipek (female) |
Arabic voices | Russian voices
Alyona (female) |
Proloquo is different from Apple’s excellent VoiceOver technology for Mac OS X Tiger in several ways. VoiceOver is a screen reader primarily intended for people who are blind. Proloquo, instead, is a communication solution that also includes certain features geared towards people with limited vision (such as the ability to speak what is below the cursor and to echo what the user types). Additionally, Proloquo works with high quality voices in multiple languages.
Proloquo can be used to create a complete personalised Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system using simple drag and drop (or copy and paste) of phrases into lists organised by topic. Proloquo also includes LayoutKitchen. With LayoutKitchen users can design their own speech panels for Proloquo with colourable and resizable buttons containing text and/or images in a variety of formats.
Watch QuickTime movies of Proloquo in use, click here to visit the AssistiveWare website.
Proloquo Features
- Full-fledged communication system (AAC) for people who cannot speak
- Type text into Proloquo and let it speak (parts of) that text
- Use drag and drop (or copy and paste) to create sets of custom words and phrases that are spoken with a simple mouse click or keystroke
- Create textual speech panels for commonly used words and phrases
- New in version 2! Use custom speech panels created with the included LayoutKitchen which have colourable and resizable buttons containing text and/or images in a variety of formats
- Optional: Use with custom image-based speech panels created with LayoutKitchen (purchase separately) using over 8000 resizable, industry-standard Picture Communication Symbols from Mayer-Johnson (purchase separately).
- Speech feedback in any application while typing for children and people with learning disabilities
- Speaks text and other keystrokes typed in any application
- Allows for customisation of the pronunciation of individual letters, symbols and keys to give full control to speech language pathologists.
- Serves as a talking word processor
- Includes a basic text editor that can speak as the user types, but can also speak individual words, sentences and paragraphs
- On Mac OS X 10.4 and later, automatically synchronises typed text and speech functions in applications such as TextEdit and Nisus Writer Express (that support Apple’s Accessibility API) as the user moves from window to window effectively turning these two applications into talking word processors
- Allows the user to enter pronunciation exceptions
- Can briefly pause between sentences for easier understanding of spoken text.
- Provides an advanced, multilingual speech engine for KeyStrokes and SwitchXS
- Adds the capability to speak with high quality voices in various languages to the built-in speech features of KeyStrokes and SwitchXS
- Provides control over speech rate, pitch and exceptions
- Allows the selection of different voices for communication, for the talking interface and for speech cues.
- Other features
- Speaks screen objects such as buttons, menus, text below the cursor in most applications
- Provides very large icons and resizable toolbars
- Speaks selected text in any application using a button or keyboard shortcut
- Speaks text pointed at by the cursor (optionally requiring a modifier key to be held down) in many applications. [Enhanced in version 2]
- Converts text to audio files and to iPod-ready iTunes tracks. [Enhanced in version 2]
- Comes with high quality Infovox iVox voices in a language of choice. [Enhanced in version 2]
- Universal Binary optimised for PowerPC and Intel processors. [New in version 2]
Voice Licensing
Please observe the following restrictions on voice output and files: Acapela Group only permits personal use of the voices and generated audio files (publication of personal content on the web is ok). Commercial use is prohibited in all cases. The School and Classroom licences permit educational use in the school or classroom, but do not allow publication of audio files outside the classroom or school (not even for free).
System Requirements
- Apple Mac
- Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) recommended
- Minimum Display Resolution: 800×600
Download
- Proloquo User Manual (pdf 2.1 MB)
- Proloquo 2.0.1 Trial version for Mac OS X 10.4 or higher ~ 30 MB
Proloquo 2 is targeted at the following age ranges:
- All Ages
Proloquo 2 is designed to foster development in the areas of:
- Communication
- Access to computers
Users can access Proloquo 2 in the following ways:
- Mouse/ Trackball/ Joystick
- Keyboard
For more information on "Proloquo 2" read the following articles:
For answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and technical support visit:
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