AKRON, Ohio — An incurable, degenerative disease slowly is robbing David Stuczynski of his ability to walk, talk and breathe.

But the Akron-area husband and father has made sure ALS will never take away his voice.

With the help of the University of Akron’s Audiology and Speech Center and a research project in Delaware, Stuczynski can continue to speak with a computerized voice that sounds nearly identical to his own.

If he eventually can’t talk as the disease progresses, Stuczynski can use the ModelTalker custom speech synthesizer software with a device that tracks his eye movements to let him select the words he wants to say.

Stuczynski has three reasons for preserving his voice: his 15-year-old son, Daniel, and his daughters, Eleanor, 17, and Evie, 11.

“I want my kids to hear my voice,” he said.

Stuczynski, 53, is among several hundred patients who have recorded their speech to create a unique, synthetic voice through ModelTalker, developed at the Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del.

The project originally started to create younger-sounding, unique voices based on a donor child’s voice for children who rely on speech-generating devices to communicate, said Tim Bunnell, director of the hospital’s Center for Pediatric, Auditory and Speech Sciences.

Participants in the ModelTalker project record themselves reading 1,600 sentences. The recordings then are shared with the Nemours Speech Research Lab, which creates a personalized database of small sound units used to form words.

The software can be used with speech-generating devices that are controlled by typing or eye-tracking technology, depending on the patient’s needs.