AI system
- System
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ABAIR Irish-language synthetic voices (abair.ie) delivered through an NVDA screenreader plugin with Liblouis Braille output
- Model
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Not assessed
- Release
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Not assessed
- Application developer
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ABAIR project, Phonetics and Speech Laboratory, Trinity College Dublin (Ní Chasaide et al.), with a blind researcher funded by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland
- Role
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Not assessed
- Configuration
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Not assessed
- Inputs and outputs
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Not assessed
- Autonomy
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Not assessed
- Workflow
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Multidialect Irish text-to-speech voices from the ABAIR initiative, funded under the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language. A blind researcher co-developing the NVDA plugin with NCBI funding, with Liblouis Braille output.
- Human oversight
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Not assessed
- Relation to AI
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The evidence is limited to the developers' account. The ABAIR team's SLPAT 2022 paper says the Irish NVDA plugin with their synthetic voices was built with a blind researcher. It was extensively tested with visually impaired school children, without any outcome data. The paper does not describe the synthesis method. So neither the system's AI character nor its contribution to any pupil's reading can be assessed from cited sources.
- AI contribution
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Not assessed
Benefits
- Outcome identifiers
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Not assessed
- Benefit
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SLPAT 2022 paper by the ABAIR team (Trinity College Dublin): Irish NVDA plugin with Braille output, NCBI-funded, built with a blind researcher, tested with visually impaired pupils; no dated outcome.
- Category
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Improved Accessibility
- Status
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Not assessed
- Beneficiary groups
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People. Society.
- Beneficiaries
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Not assessed
- Reach
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Not assessed
- Distribution and access
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Not assessed
- Duration
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Not assessed
- Expected?
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Yes
- Costs and harms
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Not assessed
Measurement
- Studies
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Not assessed
- Study design
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Not assessed
- Measurement
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Not assessed
- Setting and sample
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Not assessed
- Measures
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Not assessed
- Comparison
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Not assessed
- Results
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Not assessed
- Additional value from AI
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Not assessed
- Limitations
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Not assessed
- Denominators
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Not assessed
- Materials for replication
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Not assessed
Money
- Kind of value
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Not assessed
- Amount
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Not assessed
- Currency and prices
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Not assessed
- Period and unit
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Not assessed
- Realization
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Not assessed
- Recipients and payers
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Not assessed
- Gross or net
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Not assessed
- Included costs
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Not assessed
- Comparison
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Not assessed
- Method
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Not assessed
- Return and payback
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Not assessed
People and places
- Participants
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Developer: ABAIR project, Phonetics and Speech Laboratory, Trinity College Dublin (Ní Chasaide et al.), with a blind researcher funded by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland. Operator: Visually impaired pupils in Gaeltacht and Irish-medium schools, per the paper.
- Jurisdictions
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Benefit:
Ireland. Developer: Ireland. - Ownership and control
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Not assessed
- Dependencies
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Not assessed
- Cross-border connections
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Not assessed
- Geopolitical implications
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Not assessed
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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Users and their support networks (teachers, family) are involved in design and testing, which the authors state as a guiding principle. The free NVDA screenreader is the pupil's platform.
- Replication attempts
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Not assessed
- Later findings
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No source dated after 27 May 2022 reports deployment, uptake or review of the NVDA plugin; abair.ie's undated 'Léitheoir Scáileáin + Braille' page gives setup instructions only,.
- Availability
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Not assessed
- Institutional decision
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Not assessed
- Grounds
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Not assessed
- Action and result
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Not assessed
- Success criterion
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Not assessed
Evidence
- Source numbers
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AIBD-0321-source-0001–0002
- Citations
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Numbered references below.
- Language
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Not assessed
- Source relationships
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Developer
- Original evidence
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Not assessed
- Access and versions
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Not assessed
- Supported findings
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Not assessed
- Evidence links
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Not assessed
- Evidence strength
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Not assessed
- Missing evidence
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Not assessed
Grades
- Assessed benefits
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People. Society.
- Depth
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Not assessed
- Reasons
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People: The paper reports extensive testing with visually impaired school children and the motivating need (three Irish Braille books). No identified pupil, date or measured gain. Society: Access to written Irish for the 4,701 school-age blind or visually impaired people cited from the 2016 census is the stated aim. No uptake figure is given.
- Observed or intended
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Not assessed
- Rubric
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Not assessed
- Assessor and date
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Not assessed
- Alternative assessments
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Not assessed
- Fill
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The makers' claim
Entry details
- Kind
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Not assessed
- Related entries
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Not assessed
- Field
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Accessibility / assistive technology for an endangered language. Blind and low-vision school pupils learning through Irish.
- Purpose
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Built so that blind and visually impaired pupils can hear and read Irish text through a screenreader with Braille output. Use by school children was that intended purpose.
- Dates
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Date basis unassessed: 2022 (precision unassessed). Updated: 21 October 2026.
- Stage
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Not assessed
- Version
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SHA-256: 1f6db98b74a1…
References
- Other identifiers
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Not assessed
- Category mappings
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Not assessed
- Brief
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Not assessed
- Revisions
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4 revisions. Latest: 21 October 2026.
Sources
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Peer-reviewed study Developer
Ní Chasaide A, Barnes E, Ní Chiaráin N, McGuirk R, Morrin O, Nic Corcráin M, Cummins J (2022). Challenges in assistive technology development for an endangered language: an Irish (Gaelic) perspective. Proceedings of the Ninth Workshop on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies (SLPAT-2022), pp. 80-87, doi:10.18653/v1/2022.slpat-1.10 (authored by the system's developers).
The system was extensively tested with visually-impaired school children and a full technical description is available in McGuirk (2005).
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Peer-reviewed study Developer
Ní Chasaide et al. (2022), same paper, section 4.
With funding from the National Council for the Blind in Ireland (NCBI) a blind researcher worked with the ABAIR team to develop the NVDA screenreader plugin.