Affiliations: [a] Department of Behavioural Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden | [b] The Swedish Institute for Disability Research, Sweden
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Björn Lidestam, Department of Behavioural Sciences, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden. Tel.: +46 (0)13 282155; Fax: +46 (0)13 282145; E-mail: bjli@ibv.liu.se.
Abstract: This study investigated if a mobile video telephone may facilitate distance communication for persons with impaired hearing, and how users' speech recognition performance is associated with difficulty ratings. Ten persons with impaired hearing participated. A mobile video telephone was used to record sentences and visual-contextual cues. Sentences were presented visually, auditorily, and audiovisually; and both with and without visual-contextual cues. The results showed that audiovisual presentation modality and visual-contextual cues together significantly enhanced speech recognition, and that both audiovisual presentation modality and visual-contextual cues by themselves gave tendencies toward significance. Also, speech recognition and difficulty ratings were significantly correlated over all conditions. It was concluded that mobile video telephones may today already enhance speech recognition for individuals with impaired hearing, but for substantial effects, audiovisual synchronization needs to be improved.
Keywords: Hearing impairment, hearing, speechreading, cues, communication aids
