American Stroke Foundation

Aphasia = Loss of language, not intellect.

This video provides helpful hints to using smart phones to communicate with aphasia.

Aphasia is due to an injury in the brain, most often from a stroke. It causes an impairment in language affecting production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. Some symptoms of aphasia include trouble speaking clearly, understanding speech, writing clearly, understanding written words, remembering words, or remembering object names.

There are many different types of aphasia. Each subtype affects language differently, but they all impact communication.

Trouble with communicating can cause self-doubt, shame, and embarrassment. Aphasia can create barriers to engage socially with friends, family, and in the community. Technology that you use every day such as your phone can help you feel empowered and help others understand what you want to say.

Using the text to speak option and voice text on your phone increases the opportunities for independence. You can save words, phrases, or sentences in your notes that you can use out in the community for conversations or ordering at a restaurant. Caregivers can help you when typing on your phone as well. One suggestion is to look up a menu before going out and write your order on the phone so you are prepared to click the voice button when you arrive.

• Go to settings in your iPhone
• Scroll down to “Accessibility”
• Once in “Accessibility” go to “Spoken Content”
• Once in “Spoken Content” at the top it will say “Speak Selection”, click on it to activate (bar will turn green)
• Once it is activated when you highlight any written texts, boxes will appear above them. Press the arrow over and click on the “Speak” option
• Your text will be spoken for you

• Go to google play store
• Once in store, type “TTS”
• Download the app titled “Text to Speech (TTS”) the app is clue with an animated microphone and sound waves
• Once downloaded, open the app and enter the text you would like spoken,
• In the top right-hand corner, there is a microphone with soundwaves, click on that and the text will be spoken for you
• You can have pre-set sentences typed in your notes that you can copy and paste into the app as well