REACH Sound-It-Out Phonetic Keyboard™ (Patent Pending)
The REACH Sound-It-Out Keyboard™ is a new approach to typing based on smart keys (Patent Pending). The keyboard has an array of "keys" which represent phonemes rather than letters. On the children's keyboard (shown below), pictures are presented to help users find the sound they are after (e.g., a picture of a bus for the "B" sound). When the user points at a key, an audio recording is played (e.g., "bih – bus").
To "type" a word (e.g., "light"), the user "types" the first sound in the word ("L") by pressing that key. Two things then happen: smart keys removes phonemes that don't follow an initial "L" sound and the word prediction windows are filled with the most frequently used words that begin with "L" - as shown in the picture below:
After the second sound is selected (the long "I" sound), the keyboard shows sounds that follow an initial "L" + "I" phonemic pattern (see picture below). In the candidate words presented above the keyboard, the most frequent words beginning with the "L" + "I" sound are presented and can be heard by pointing at them. Also, any words that are completed (such as "lie" at this point) are moved to the top of the list and highlighted with a yellow background.
Selecting the third and final "T" sound in the word being sought changes the phonetic keyboard as shown in the picture below. Only sounds which follow an initial "L" + "Long I" + "T" sound remain on the keyboard. Also, words which begin with that pattern are shown in the word prediction windows above the keyboard. Two words are shown as completed: "light" and "lied." Although not true homophones, both words are shown as completed because is possible to confuse the final "T" sound with a final "D" sound. All such "homophones" have corresponding short phrases which can be read aloud by pointing at the word to help you decide which is the word you are seeking. These "Homophone Hints" can be shown all the time (as in the picture below), only when pointed at with your mouse, or not at all - depending on your preference.
Users also are provided a "replay window" as shown below for the "Pictures" keyboard. Here, the user can see and hear (by clicking on them) the sounds selected up to that point. When the user selects the "Say It!" button, the speech synthesizer plays (blends) the selected sounds in sequence.
In a completed experiment, children with and without learning (spelling) disabilities were significantly more accurate in spelling when using the phonetic keyboard than when using a standard alphabetic keyboard. Results for adult subjects were very similar.