The study, carried out by the University of Salford, was in two phases – a review of current speech recognition software and testing of the software with hearing impaired users to determine its accuracy and usability.
The study found that Windows Speech Recogniser 8.0, which is available to Windows users for free, performs as well as commercial speech recognition packages. Seven out of eight participants in the testing said they would use the software for some calls, while five out of eight said they would use it for all calls.
Ofcom is now planning to commission a third phase of the study, involving in-home trials in a real world environment.
For more information see the Ofcom website.
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