Dysarthria

A group of speech disorders caused by weakness, paralysis, or lack of coordination in the muscles used for speaking, resulting from damage to the brain or nervous system. Speech may sound slurred, slow, or difficult to understand, though the person's language comprehension and cognitive ability typically remain intact. Common causes include cerebral palsy, stroke, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dysarthria is a key consideration in accessible technology design because standard automatic speech recognition systems perform very poorly on dysarthric speech, often excluding these users from voice-controlled interfaces.