FAQQuestions families usually ask first.
Who is My Dad's Voice for?
It is designed specifically for individuals living with conditions that impact speech and motor skills, such as ALS/MND, stroke, or severe arthritis. It is ideal for anyone who benefits from a simpler, highly visible way to communicate and access everyday digital content when typing or conventional interfaces become too difficult. Please note: it is communication software, not a medical device.
What is The Eccles Machine?
The Eccles Machine is the private, secure engine behind My Dad's Voice. It automates your private system setup, handles billing, manages accessibility protocols, and provides entirely isolated, ring-fenced storage—guaranteeing that your family's personal messages and private photographs are completely locked down from the rest of the web.
Do I need to buy expensive eye-gaze or head-tracking cameras?
No special hardware is required to get started. My Dad’s Voice is designed to work directly with the standard accessibility features built into modern computers and operating systems (such as Windows Eye Control, Apple Head Tracking, or basic touch screens). If you already own dedicated hardware, the system's high-visibility layouts and custom dwell settings adapt easily to your existing setup.
Is my communication board private, and will I need to enter a PIN every time?
Yes. Every private My Dad's Voice communication space is strictly isolated and secure. Simply knowing your custom board web address is not enough to view it.
The first time the board is opened on a new computer or tablet, it must be authorised using either the Board Access PIN or a temporary pairing code created by the caregiver.
If you choose Trust this device, that device can open the communication board normally in future without requiring the person using the board to type a PIN every time.
The Caregiver PIN remains separate and is still required to change settings, security, billing and other protected account options.
Trusted devices can be reviewed or revoked at any time from the caregiver Security settings.
Does the text-to-speech feature work in South African accents or other languages?
Yes. The platform utilizes your device’s native web speech engine. This means it supports local accents and multiple international languages depending on the speech configurations installed on your device’s browser. You can fully customize and test these voices from the protected Caregiver admin dashboard.
Is there a steep learning curve for the caregiver?
Not at all. The administrative dashboard is explicitly built for non-technical users. It uses clear, straightforward menus where you can change phrases, toggle voices, or update shortcuts in seconds. Any changes you save take effect on the user's communication board instantly, meaning you never have to wrestle with complex software configurations or coding.
What's the difference between Standard and Plus?
Standard focuses entirely on immediate, direct communication for the user (the phrase board, large keyboard, predictive text, email, and shortcuts). The Plus tier transforms the board into an interactive family hub, adding the Media Centre and private family-to-board messaging, alongside larger storage and contact allowances.
Can I upgrade, downgrade, or change plans later?
Absolutely. You are never locked into a long-term commitment. You can seamlessly switch between the Standard and Plus tiers from your Account & Billing panel at any time, depending on how many family members want to connect or how much storage space your media center requires.
Are the setup fee or monthly subscription payments refundable?
The setup fee is non-refundable, as it covers the work involved in creating, configuring and preparing your private My Dad’s Voice communication space.
Your subscription can be cancelled at any time from Account & Billing. Cancelling stops future automatic renewals, but does not refund the current month or billing period that has already been paid. Your communication board will remain available until the end of that paid period.
No further subscription payments will be taken after the cancellation becomes effective
Where is our data hosted, and how secure are the backups?
Your private communication board, messages, and shared family media run on world-class, enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure powered by Akamai and Linode.To ensure your family's vital communication history and memories are never lost, our automated system performs comprehensive data backups twice daily. Your data is stored in highly secure, physically guarded data centres featuring advanced encryption protocols, guaranteeing that your isolated platform remains safe, resilient, and continuously accessible whenever your loved one needs it.
Will My Dad’s Voice still work if the internet goes down?
My Dad’s Voice uses the internet for features such as receiving new family messages, loading new media, opening web shortcuts and sending emails. However, a temporary internet outage does not have to stop basic communication.
If My Dad’s Voice has already been installed and opened on the person’s PC or Mac as an app, the core communication board, saved phrases, large keyboard, calculator and text-to-speech can continue working during a temporary connection loss. This means the person can still use the board to communicate with someone in the room.
Features that require an internet connection — including family messages, new media, web shortcuts and outgoing email — will become available again once the connection returns.
For best offline reliability, the app should already have been opened and loaded on the device before the internet connection is lost.
