Hi all, I am writing to ask if anyone knows of a good book that either in whole or part provides an overview of the history of speech-generating software and/or devices - essentially, a history of humans making computers "talk." For background, my dissertation is primarily a qualitative study of how US parents of young non-verbal children with developmental disabilities incorporate the iPad into their families' lives when the child uses the mobile device partly or primarily as a speech-generating system. I am pairing this fieldwork with archival research on how parents have historically navigated the world of personal computers equipped with software for producing synthetic speech. Thanks! Meryl Alper Ph.D. Candidate in Communication Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism University of Southern California