Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39157956›Full record

ArticleThe Laryngoscope2025

Quantification of Automatic Speech Recognition System Performance on d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Speech.

Robin Zhao, Anna S G Choi, Allison Koenecke, Anaïs Rameau

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Laryngoscope, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Robin ZhaoSean Parker Institute for the Voice, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, U.S.A.ORCID 0009-0000-0345-2756
Anna S G ChoiDepartment of Information Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, U.S.A.
Allison KoeneckeDepartment of Information Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, U.S.A.
Anaïs RameauSean Parker Institute for the Voice, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, U.S.A.ORCID 0000-0003-1543-2634

Funding

Bridge2AI: Voice as a Biomarker of Health - Building an ethically sourced, bioaccoustic database to understand disease like never beforeOT2OD032720 · OD · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA · PI BENSOUSSAN, YAEL EMILIE, BÉLISLE-PIPON, JEAN-CHRISTOPHE · 2022 to 2025
$18.0M
Developing an App-Based Voice Clinical Decision Support Tool to Augment the Sensitivity of the Bedside Swallow Evaluation in Older AdultsK76AG079040 · NIA · WEILL MEDICAL COLL OF CORNELL UNIV · PI Anais Rameau · 2022 to 2026
$972k
NIA NIH HHS K76 AG079040NIH HHS OT2 OD032720
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo evaluate the performance of commercial automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems on d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (d/Dhh) speech.

methodsA corpus containing 850 audio files of d/Dhh and normal hearing (NH) speech from the University of Memphis Speech Perception Assessment Laboratory was tested on four speech-to-text application program interfaces (APIs): Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Chirp, and OpenAI Whisper. We quantified the Word Error Rate (WER) of API transcriptions for 24 d/Dhh and nine NH participants and performed subgroup analysis by speech intelligibility classification (SIC), hearing loss (HL) onset, and primary communication mode.

resultsMean WER averaged across APIs was 10 times higher for the d/Dhh group (52.6%) than the NH group (5.0%). APIs performed significantly worse for "low" and "medium" SIC (85.9% and 46.6% WER, respectively) as compared to "high" SIC group (9.5% WER, comparable to NH group). APIs performed significantly worse for speakers with prelingual HL relative to postlingual HL (80.5% and 37.1% WER, respectively). APIs performed significantly worse for speakers primarily communicating with sign language (70.2% WER) relative to speakers with both oral and sign language communication (51.5%) or oral communication only (19.7%).

conclusionCommercial ASR systems underperform for d/Dhh individuals, especially those with "low" and "medium" SIC, prelingual onset of HL, and sign language as primary communication mode. This contrasts with Big Tech companies' promises of accessibility, indicating the need for ASR systems ethically trained on heterogeneous d/Dhh speech data. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Laryngoscope, 135:191-197, 2025.

Indexed as

Speech Recognition SoftwareAdultAgedDeafnessFemaleHearing LossHumansMaleMiddle AgedPersons with Hearing DisabilitiesSpeech IntelligibilitySpeech PerceptionYoung Adultartificial intelligencevoice

Identifiers

PMID39157956
PMCPMC11637924

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.