Fact · Accessibility and health
9.9percent word error rate (from 25.4)
In Apple research with 91 people who stutter, technical changes to a consumer speech recognizer cut utterances off 79.1 percent less often and improved word error rate from 25.4 percent to 9.9 percent.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“Through three technical investigations, we demonstrate how many common errors can be prevented, resulting in a system that cuts utterances of 79.1% less often and improves word error rate from 25.4% to 9.9%.”
From User Perceptions to Technical Improvement: Enabling People Who Stutter to Better Use Speech Recognition, Colin Lea et al., Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (arXiv preprint), 2023, Abstract.
Open the original (DOI 10.48550/arXiv.2302.09044)- What it measures
- The paper also surveyed 61 people who stutter: they wanted to use speech recognition but were frequently cut off, misunderstood, or got predictions that did not match what they meant. The 91-person study recorded voice assistant commands and dictation.
- What it does not show
- Measured on Apple's own recognizer and research changes, not on every dictation product. Results are averages; people with more severe stuttering may see higher error rates.