In some parts of the world, a voice-activated home device can play your favorite song or teach you how to bake a cake. Yet, in those parts of the world that are experiencing humanitarian crisis, people often aren’t able to read instructions to attend to their basic needs, even if they are written in their own language. And they certainly can’t ask Alexa to help.
In these situations, speech technology is more than a luxury. Quite often, people affected by a humanitarian crisis are less literate. Women in particular are less likely to be able to read. In such scenarios, having information in an audio format is a need, not a want.
Of course, providing information in an audio format is not enough to ensure understanding. Language also needs to be considered. Yet, to complicate matters further, people living through a humanitarian crisis often do not speak a language blessed with extensive ...