‘I have to talk proper white ways’: Australian Aboriginal English Speakers’ Experiences with Voice Technologies

This article reports on a qualitative study investigating experiences of Indigenous people in Australia with voice technologies. Many Indigenous people in Australia speak Australian Aboriginal English, a variety which emerged as a result of forced contact between Indigenous communities and English speakers. It is widely used, yet is poorly supported by language technologies. Through Indigenous-led in-depth interviews, this research explores user experiences, attitudes, responses, and challenges encountered while interacting with various speech-enabled devices and applications using Australian Aboriginal English. We find that Indigenous users of ASR-powered technologies report poor experiences with the technologies, which they see as working better for non-Indigenous people. They report switching to speak like white people to get better ASR performance. Our findings reveal significant pressure to speak `white way' when interacting with technology.