In 2023, Robin Leaper of Norwalk, Iowa, lost her voice to ALS, an incurable neuromuscular illness also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Since then, the former Parks and Recreation Director had been relying on text-to-speech technology and sign language, but neither of these methods allowed her to sound like herself.
To give Leaper her voice back, Norwalk’s Marketing and Communications Specialist, Tai Lieu, compiled hours of public meeting recordings and loaded them into an AI-powered voice recreation program. The software allows Leaper to type words that are then read aloud in her own voice. “It gave me back a little piece ALS stole from me,” she says.
She got her first chance to test drive the new voice software when she was awarded Norwalk's Citizen of the Year Award, and Lieu says many in the audience didn’t even realize that she wasn’t speaking live. Looking ahead, Leaper hopes to use her restored voice to advocate for ALS awareness and research as she continues working toward a cure.
Source: KCCI
photo: Getty
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