Zach’s twin brother Reuben, is autistic and non-verbal. Reuben started to use an Augmentative Communication Device (ACD) but struggled to bond with the standardised voice that came with it. Zach offered his own voice, to make the device more personal.
“I volunteered to do it because I think it’s very special for Ruben and very important for him because I’m giving him something that he’s never really had before,” explains Zach in an interview with Good Morning Britain. “It’s a mixture [of both our voices] to make them sound more personal to Reube. So he uses his talkpad a lot more.”
“I’ve never had a struggle [to communicate with Reuben], I’ve never really felt alone because he’s always there by my side. We do have a strong connection with each other. We have our own superpowers, it’s like a mind power basically like where we connect together we can understand each other a lot more.”
You can watch Zach and Reuben’s appearance on Good Morning Britain below.
Ruben is a non-verbal autistic teenager who has now found his voice thanks to an augmentative communication device.
Experts worked to create a custom voice for him by blending his twin brother Zach’s voice with sounds from Reuben himself. pic.twitter.com/irpbKfU6Pp
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) December 6, 2024