The recent investment made by President Joe Biden’s administration involves allocating $200,000 of American taxpayer money towards a transgender app aimed at teaching men how to adopt a feminine voice. This substantial grant was approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in November.
The funds, which were granted by the NIH’s Deafness and Other Communication Disorders department, will be utilized to support research for the development of a smartphone app. Leading this project is Vesna Dominika Novak, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati who identifies as transgender.
The NIH has approved a total of $213,878 in funding from December 2023 to November 2024, allowing Novak’s team to create the app. The app’s purpose, as outlined in the project details, is to provide training for biological males who identify as transgender women to develop a more feminine speaking voice.
“Transgender and gender diverse people exhibit a significantly lower quality of life than the general public,” the abstract of the grant reads.
“One reason for this is voice dysphoria: distress because a person’s voice does not match their gender identity (e.g., trans women with deep voices).
“Reducing this voice-gender incongruence can improve quality of life, but is difficult to achieve …
“One way to provide more accessible GAVT would be through smartphone- or computer-based software that delivers information about voice, suggests exercises, and provides feedback on exercise performance.”
The abstract further contends that seeking assistance from speech therapists can be both time-consuming and expensive, and that there is a scarcity of specialists in gender-affirming voice and communication training (GAVT).
Upon completion, the application will incorporate “visual-acoustic biofeedback” to provide users with an assessment of their voice quality.
Additionally, it will offer recommendations on how to enhance the femininity of their voice. According to the grant, the study will involve 40 individuals who identify as “transgender” and are assigned male at birth. They will utilize the researchers’ experimental application and engage in weekly online meetings.
Throughout the week, the researchers will assign various levels of difficulty for the participants to complete as part of their “homework.”
“Self-reported amount of daily practice (primary outcome) as well as self-reported self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation scores will be compared between groups,” the abstract reads.
“Upon completion, the project will result in the first GAVT software that combines visual-acoustic biofeedback of pitch and resonance with structured exercises – highly requested but currently unavailable features of such software.”
