AI helps Norwalk woman with ALS get voice back
By Abigail Kurten
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NORWALK, Iowa (KCCI) — A Norwalk woman who lost her ability to speak to ALS got it back in an unexpected way.
Robin Leaper was diagnosed with ALS, or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in 2023. Since then, she’s struggled with muscle weakness, difficulty eating, and she’s no longer able to speak.
It’s been an adjustment, to say the least.
“For the first year, I couldn’t even say ALS without crying.” she said.
When she was diagnosed, she was the the Parks and Recreation Director for the City of Norwalk.
Since then, she’s tried to communicate in other ways, like text-to-speech software or sign language, but neither one has allowed her to use her own voice.
Until the city’s Marketing and Communications Specialist, Tai Lieu, came in.
Lieu combed through hours of public meeting recordings in which Leaper spoke, isolating her vocals and uploading them to an AI voice recreation software.
That software allows Leaper to type her words, which are then read aloud in her own voice.
“It sounded as if she was just standing there, speaking on her own,” Lieu said of Leaper’s first attempt at using the software when she won Norwalk’s Citizen of the Year Award last year. “I had several people say ‘I didn’t realize she was playing a recording of her voice.'”
But for Leaper, the AI recreation does more than allow her to use her own voice; it allows her to feel like herself again.
“It’s your identity,” she said. “People can hear your voice without seeing and they know it’s you. It gave me back a little piece ALS stole from me.”
As for what’s next, Leaper says she has a new priority: finding a cure.
She plans to start with Altoona’s Walk to Defeat ALS on Saturday.
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