A stroke can take the words and leave everything else — the thoughts, the humour, the person, and the wish to be heard. For someone with aphasia, the sentence is right there and simply won't come out. Not being able to say "I'm in pain," or "please stay with me," or "I love you" is its own kind of loneliness, and it lands on the family too.
We've built a small thing that might help, and we're giving it away. It's called My Voice, it's free, and anyone can use it today: **valoraparentis.com/my-voice**.
What it does
My Voice is a screen of large, clear buttons that speak aloud in a natural voice. Instead of hunting for words on a blank page, the person taps what they want to say:
- Everyday needs — "I need a drink," "I need the toilet," "I'm in pain," "Can you help me?"
- Feelings — emotion cards, because it's often easier to point to worried or frustrated than to describe it.
- An emergency screen, and a build-a-sentence helper for saying something new from a few taps.
- Whatever is chosen is spoken aloud, shown in large text, and kept in a simple "what I said" list.
There's a quiet carer area too, where a family member can shape it to the person: bigger buttons and forgiving taps for an unsteady hand; high contrast and a seeing-side layout for sight lost on one side; picture-led screens where words are hard; and switch-scanning for someone who can't tap at all. Tick what fits, and it sets itself up.
Free, and honestly a prototype
No sign-up, no cost, nothing to install. It opens in a web browser and works on a phone, tablet or computer, and it keeps working with no internet once it's open. It's there in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Polish, and opens in the language of the page you arrived from.
We'll be straight with you: this is an early prototype. We're sharing it openly because a rough tool that helps today is worth more than a polished one that never arrives — and because the people who can tell us what it's missing are stroke survivors, their families, and speech and language therapists. If you try it, please tell us what would make it better.
What it isn't
My Voice is a communication aid — a way to say everyday things out loud. It is not speech and language therapy, and it doesn't treat, rehabilitate or diagnose anything. It doesn't replace the work done with a therapist; at most it sits alongside it, for the ordinary moments between appointments when someone simply needs to be understood. If there's any doubt about what will help a particular person, a speech and language therapist is the right person to ask — and worth asking about tools like this one, too.
Where to find the real help
- A speech and language therapist (SLT) — the right professional for aphasia and communication after a stroke. Ask the GP or stroke team for a referral if there isn't one already.
- The Stroke Association (stroke.org.uk) — support, information and a helpline for stroke survivors and their families, including on aphasia.
- Aphasia support — organisations such as Say Aphasia run peer groups where people rebuild confidence in talking; worth looking up locally.
- AbilityNet (abilitynet.org.uk) — free advice on making any computer, tablet or phone easier to use after a stroke.
If My Voice helps one person be heard at the moment it matters, it has done its job. It's free, it's right here, and it's yours to use and to share.