Research Participant Information and Consent Form

Study Title: Making Voice-Activated AI Accessible and Fair to People Who Stutter

1. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

• You are being asked to participate in a research study designed to create a voice-activated artificial intelligence (AI) automated speech recognition system that is accessible and fair to people who stutter. (The system is similar to Siri and Alexa, but improved to be able to understand stuttering.)
• If you choose, your anonymized speech sample data will also be used to create a testbed platform of completely de-identified speech samples for other voice AI systems, companies, and researchers to evaluate technology to assess and improve their accessibility.
• You may also choose to allow us to contribute your anonymized speech samples to databases such as FluencyBank to allow other researchers to learn more about stuttering.

2. WHAT YOU WILL DO

• You will be asked to complete a demographic questionnaire and record a set of speech samples. You always have the option to skip any portion of these tasks that you do not wish to complete.
• The demographic questionnaire asks about age, gender, ethnicity, education level, occupation, and history of a variety of disorders, including hearing, speech, and language disorders.
• The speech samples consist of phrases that are commonly used with personal assistants (e.g., “turn on the lights”), as well as standard speech samples (reading passages commonly used in speech research) and spontaneous speech (e.g., describing your favorite food).
• Your participation in this study will require an estimated 60 minutes.

3. POTENTIAL BENEFITS

• You will not receive any direct benefits from participating in this study, but the information that you provide may benefit other people who stutter in the future.

4. POTENTIAL RISKS

• There are minimal foreseeable risks associated with participation in this study.
• The primary risk is a breach of confidentiality. We will take every precaution to guard your privacy by ensuring that your personal information will not be released publicly or shared.

5. PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

• Information about you will be kept confidential to the maximum extent allowable by law. Data will be stored on a secured, password-protected server. The only people who will have access to this server will be people directly involved with the research study and the University’s Human Subject Protection Program (HRPP) office.

6. YOUR RIGHTS TO PARTICIPATE, SAY NO, OR WITHDRAW

• Participation is voluntary.
• You have the right to say no.
• You may change your mind, discontinue, and withdraw from the study at any time.
• You may choose not to answer specific questions or to stop participating at any time.

7. COSTS AND COMPENSATION FOR BEING IN THE STUDY

• You will receive compensation for your time via a Visa gift card in the amount of $50.

8. CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have concerns or questions about this study, such as scientific issues or to report an injury, please contact the researcher or the faculty supervisor:

• Prof. J. Scott Yaruss, PhD, CCC-SLP BCS-F, F-ASHA (Lab Director) jsy@msu.edu
  Michigan State University Spartan Stuttering Laboratory
  1026 Red Cedar Road, Oyer Building, MSU, East Lansing, MI 48824

If you have questions or concerns about your role and rights as a research participant, would like to obtain information or offer input, or would like to register a complaint about this study, you may contact, anonymously if you wish, the MSU Human Research Protection Program at 517-355-2180, Fax 517-432-4503, e-mail irb@msu.edu or mail at 4000 Collins Rd, Suite 136, Lansing, MI 48910.

9. CONFIRMATION OF CONSENT

You may choose to have your speech samples used only for the creation of our automatic speech recognition (ASR) system, or anonymized/de-identified versions can be used by other researchers for testing their ASR systems through an “ASR testbed” that we are developing, and/or databases of transcribed speech samples, such as FluencyBank. If you wish to allow your samples to be included in the ASR testbed and/or de-identified databases, check the box and provide your initials below. You will be eligible to participate in the study regardless of your choice.

During scientific professional presentations, audio and video samples may be used to demonstrate the functionality and behavior of our ASR. If you wish to allow your samples to be used for educational purposes, check the box and provide your initials below. You will be eligible to participate in the study regardless of your choice.

10. DOCUMENTATION OF INFORMED CONSENT

We appreciate your time and your responses so that we can create an accessible and fair voice AI technology for people who stutter.

Your signature below means that you voluntarily agree to participate in this research study.

(You will receive a copy of this form to keep.)