AACSpeakHelper is a small tool that enables you to\

• Take text written in a Windows AAC application

• If you need to - Translate it using a choice of online translation systems

• and if you need to - Speak that text using a range of online or new offline speech models supporting not currently supported by commercial providers

It is good if you

• Want to set up a AAC system for someone speaking in a language not currently supported by solutions available

• If you have a client who wants to communicate to some people using a language they aren't familiar with. For example speaking to carers who are don't communicate using the communication aid users language or need to speak to family members who only speak in a language that they dont have a understanding of that written form

What its not good for

• Reading or saving long streams of text (eg reading a book aloud)

• If you want to use with a piece of software you cant copy the text from a message bar

• You really have to use iOS, Android or something else

Typical Use Cases

1. Language translation and speech output

Imagine you are a Kurdish speaker with limited English skills residing in a care facility. AAC Speak Helper bridges you and your caregivers, translating Kurdish text into English. Moreover, it supports people who need to speak languages less commonly supported by TTS technology.

1. Language not supported by current commercial solutions

If you speak Urdu - either as a bilingual speaker or as your primary language it can be difficult to find the perfect AAC system to meet your needs

Compatibility

AAC Speak Helper is a lightweight Windows executable. It can be called from any AAC app on Windows that can run external programs.

How it Works

AAC Speak Helper reads the text once the text is copied to the clipboard (using Ctrl+C). Depending on the configuration settings, it either translates the text using the selected service, speaks it aloud, or reads it. There are additional features, such as putting intonation (or style) onto some voices. We provide a CLI configuration tool to set up the application. The main application, though, has no interface.

As this is a quick prototype, it may have some issues. For issues regarding connectivity or functionality, please note that Azure, Google Cloud and translation services require an online connection. If you have any questions, suggestions, or contributions, please create a pull request or donate.

Common Feature requests

• Offline Translation. Although possible with NLLB (Meta) its not easy to do all the language pairs we potentially need.

• The key feature is to make the integration easier. This is actually best done if it was a system wide voice rather than all software having to integrate different providers. So how do we do it? See our roadmap

• ElevenLabs access.

• Offline Azure/Google etc voices. Although advertised as kind of possible its not without limitations (notably not all voices are available like this from Microsoft and particularly not those that are of high need becauser we dont have much language support)

Run the installer. Click through the options. At the end you can choose to run the applications - we recommend running these.

If you don't check these boxes - you can run them from your desktop or Start Menu. The applications you need to run are:

1. AACSpeakHelperServer - this runs in the background in your task bar

2. Configure AACSpeakHelper CLI - this allows you to configure the setup you need using a command-line interface

AACSpeakHelper ISNT a SAPI Speech engine. What this means is it is not seen by your AAC Software as a voice you would pick in your regular settings screen. We have to do some things to get this to work. And note you will have to be comfortable editing your software.

In short you need to:

• Add a button to copy the message bar (writing area)

• Then, have an action on this button to call the executable found at %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Programs\Ace Centre\AACSpeakHelper\client.exe

Download the installer from our . You click on the link under "assets" for the file named AACSpeakHelper-v2.2.8.exe (or whatever number is there)

Alternatively you will find the current most release on the Ace Centre Website

So we are not providing here software Gridsets/Pagesets of Keyboards for different languages.

If you want a client to write in the language of this TTS system (not use translate) You have to

• Find a keyboard layout the client is familar with in the correct script.

• Copy and paste the characters needed into a Gridset/Pageset that you need. Remember to not put spaces behind the characters

• This is painstaking. Please consider sharing your work so others can benefit.

Azure TTS

• You first need an Azure subscription - .

• It works on Python 3.10 or 3.11. The dependencies aren't well covered on all other versions (and there are a lot!)

• We use a GitHub action to build the application (see workflow .)

Help! It doesnt say anything when I press the preview button!

• Have you just downloaded a new model? Give it a little while.. The pipe service doesnt report back when the model has downloaded and ready so the GUI tool just reports back ready. It should cue up your request though so it might take a little while

• Preview just says "Hello world" and runs client. If it is set to translate it may be sending the incorrect text. Try using translate and match the language you are trying to preview

Ummm its stopped working

• In the bottom right of the task bar you will find a small blue icon. Quit the AACSpeakHelper server and start it again. To do this navigate to %AppData%/Local/Programs/Ace Centre/AACSpeakHelper/ and double click on AACSpeakHelperServer.exe

• If it keeps happening send us the logs which are all plain text files %AppData%/Roaming/Ace Centre/AACSpeakHelper/

The translations are really bad - or have just stopped

• We default to using Google - the standard translate.google.com interface for this - not their paid for tier. Two problems with this: 1. Its rate limited. If you use it a lot rapidly it may stop for a short while. 2. The code we use to access this may have stopped working. Just let us know.

• Try changing translation providers. Some you will need to pay for but are likely to be better

Can I use this to batch-process a file of strings?

Sure. You may want to do this, for example, to create audio files for some phrases for a bilingual speaker. There are other tools to do this, but this is possible. You can just copy your text and run the main application - then look at the cache directory for the audio file. But if you want to automate this, check out this Powershell script

When supporting people with a language not supported by AAC

• Does the Voice exist on any system? (See our)

• If it doesnt can we get by with recorded clips?

• Do we need symbol vocabulary or can they write?

Blood, sweat and tears

We have

1. A pipe server (AACSpeakHelperServer.py)

   1. Reads in a config dict from settings.cfg

   2. Creates an object to the TTS Engine and holds it in memory to reduce coldstart time

   3. Speaks using sounddevice (heavily reliant on py3-tts-wrapper)

   4. Handles translation using various translation providers

   5. Communicates via named pipes with clients

2. Client - calling executable (client.py)

   1. You can pass it a config file path and text string

   2. If no text provided, it uses clipboard/pasteboard text

3. CLI Configuration Tool (cli_config_creator.py)

   1. Interactive command-line interface for configuration

   2. Supports all TTS engines and translation providers

4. Additional Tools

   1. CreateGridset.py - Creates AAC communication grids

   2. migrate_settings.py - Migrates settings between versions

Configuration Architecture

The application uses a multi-layered configuration approach:

1. settings.cfg - Main configuration file in INI format

   • Contains all TTS engine settings, translation settings, and application preferences

   • Located in %AppData%\Ace Centre\AACSpeakHelper for installed versions

Technical Implementation

There is a lot of magic to make this work though. This includes

• - a unified wrapper to a range of TTS engines. This is needed as we need a unified way of get_voices and speak, speak_streamed etc

• - a really nice tooling pipleine to deal with VITS models that run on the edge.

• and - Massive help this work from Meta - and we converted their models for (Sherpa-)Onnx. We made some things on the way like a nice JSON with details on the voices. Commerical Providers: Please note the licence these are under

Credits

• Will Wade (original v1, refactoring v2 several times, dealing with encryption, build scripts and generally pulling my hair out)

• Acer Jay Costillo (QT work and refactoring)

• Gavin Henderson - for making the call on baking in creds. I hated that and several times threw the idea out.

Whats next?

• SAPI Bridge. This is really what is needed. C++ developers - we need your help. See

The app (client.exe) is designed to be called by a AAC application - and relies on some text being available in the copy buffer. You can use these parameters/flags to control aspects like which settings file is loaded or other aspects. Read below for all the flags.

AACSpeakHelper now uses a modern, intuitive configuration system with positive boolean logic. This guide explains how to configure it effectively.

New Configuration System

After installation, you need to configure the application. There are two main ways to configure AACSpeakHelper:

1. CLI Configuration Tool - Use our command-line configuration tool Configure AACSpeakHelper CLI (recommended)

2. Manual Editing - Edit the settings file by hand using a text editor

Using the CLI Configuration Tool

The easiest way to configure AACSpeakHelper is using our CLI configuration tool. You can find Configure AACSpeakHelper CLI in your start menu after installation, or run it directly from the installation directory.

The CLI tool provides an interactive menu with the following options:

1. Configure TTS Engine - Set up your Text-to-Speech engine and voice

2. Configure Translation - Set up translation settings and language pairs

3. Configure Transliteration - Set up script conversion settings (e.g., Latin to Devanagari)

Configuring TTS Engine

When you select option 1, you'll be able to choose from several Text-to-Speech engines:

Available TTS Engines

Sherpa-ONNX (Recommended for most users)

• Offline TTS engine that works without internet

• Supports a large range of languages not supported by other systems

• Good balance of quality and performance

Azure TTS (High quality, requires API key)

• Microsoft's cloud-based TTS service

• Excellent voice quality and natural speech

• Requires Azure Speech Services subscription and API key

Google TTS (High quality, requires API key)

• Google's cloud-based TTS service

• High-quality voices with natural intonation

• Requires Google Cloud TTS API credentials

Google Trans TTS (Free, limited quality)

• Free TTS using Google Translate

• No API key required but limited quality

• May have usage restrictions

Other Premium Engines Available:

• ElevenLabs - Premium quality voices, requires subscription

• PlayHT - High quality voices, requires subscription

• AWS Polly - Good quality, requires AWS account

TTS Configuration Options

When configuring a TTS engine, you'll be prompted for:

Voice ID - The specific voice to use (varies by engine and language) Rate - Speech speed (0 = normal, negative values = slower, positive = faster) Volume - Audio volume (100 = normal, 50 = quieter, 150 = louder) Save Audio File - Whether to save audio files to disk for caching and reuse Bypass TTS - Skip text-to-speech entirely (useful for translation-only mode)

Configuring Translation

When you select option 2 from the main menu, you can configure translation settings:

Translation Providers

GoogleTranslator (Free, limited usage)

• Free translation service using Google Translate

• May have usage limits or temporary blocks with heavy use

• Good for testing and light usage

Microsoft Translator (Requires API key)

• High-quality translation service

• Requires Azure Translator subscription

• More reliable for production use

Other Translation Providers Available:

• DeepL (Premium quality, requires API key)

• Yandex Translator

• Baidu Translator

• LibreTranslate

Translation Settings

Enabled - Enable or disable translation entirely (true/false) Source Language - The language of your input text (e.g., "en" for English) Target Language - The target language for translation (e.g., "ps" for Pashto) Replace Clipboard - Whether to replace clipboard content with translated text

Configuring Transliteration

When you select option 3 from the main menu, you can configure transliteration settings:

What is Transliteration?

Transliteration converts text from one script to another while maintaining the same language. For example, converting Latin script "namaste" to Devanagari script "नमस्ते" (both are Hindi, just different scripts).

Transliteration Settings

Enabled - Enable or disable transliteration entirely (true/false) Language - The language for transliteration (Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, etc.) From Script - The source script (e.g., "Latn" for Latin) To Script - The target script (e.g., "Deva" for Devanagari) Replace Clipboard - Whether to replace clipboard content with transliterated text

Supported Languages and Scripts

• Arabic (ar) - Latin ↔ Arabic script

• Bengali (bn) - Latin ↔ Bengali script

• Gujarati (gu) - Latin ↔ Gujarati script

Requirements

Transliteration requires Azure Translator credentials:

• Azure Translator subscription key

• Azure resource region (e.g., "uksouth", "eastus")

These can be configured in your settings file or through environment variables.

Manual Configuration

If you prefer to edit configuration files directly, you can manually edit the settings.cfg file.

Location of Settings File

For installed versions: Navigate to %AppData%\Ace Centre\AACSpeakHelper in File Explorer to find the settings.cfg file.

For development versions: The settings.cfg file is located in the project root directory.

Editing the Settings File

You can edit the configuration file using any plain text editor (Notepad, VS Code, etc.). The file uses INI format with sections and key-value pairs.

Example Configuration Structure

Using Custom Configuration Files

You can create multiple configuration files for different use cases:

Command Line Usage:

Distribution to End Users: You can create pre-configured settings files and distribute them to users. This is useful for organizations that want to deploy AACSpeakHelper with specific settings.

Configuration File Sections

[App] - Application settings

• collectstats - Whether to collect anonymous usage statistics

[processing] - Processing pipeline settings

• pipeline - Order of processing steps (e.g., "translate,transliterate,tts")

[translate] - Translation settings

• enabled - Enable translation (true/false)

• source_language - Source language code (e.g., "en")

• target_language - Target language code (e.g., "ps")

[transliterate] - Transliteration settings

• enabled - Enable transliteration (true/false)

• language - Language code for transliteration (e.g., "hi")

• from_script - Source script code (e.g., "Latn")

[tts] - Text-to-Speech settings

• enabled - Enable TTS (true/false)

• engine - TTS engine name (e.g., "azureTTS")

• save_audio - Save audio files (true/false)

[TTS] - Text-to-Speech settings

• engine - TTS engine name (e.g., "azureTTS", "Sherpa-ONNX")

• bypass_tts - Skip TTS entirely (True/False)

• save_audio_file - Cache audio files (True/False)

Engine-specific sections (e.g., [azureTTS], [googleTTS])

• Contains API keys, credentials, and engine-specific settings

This tool supports a multitude of languages provided through Azure and Google Cloud. For a detailed list, please refer to the respective sections below.

WARNING

Please note. If you use any online TTS system, the data is sent to a server and sent back. These services do not store this data, but it is up to you to check this and how it may work against your own IG policy. The app does have a feature of 'caching' data, too - but this is not sent to Ace or anyone else. It's all on the device.

Languages by Azure

For the most up-to-date list see the list

Languages by Azure (Online)

Languages by Google Cloud (Online)

Languages by Sherpa-Onnx (MMS)

First up, check the table below for Languages officially supported by the software you are using. You can also use this as a tool to find which apps support a language you are interested in. Be careful. Some languages write in different scripts. Check the script that the TTS engine expects.

MindExpress

RHVoice (SAPI)

SAPI - MSSpeech

anReader

Note:

• All versions of anReader 4.2.8 support both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows OS.

• It is recommended that Windows is updated and the latest system patches are installed.

• On Windows 10 and Windows 11, only the latest version of NVDA is currently supported, with other screen readers minor problems may occur in the operation of anReader.

Cereproc (SAPI)