6. He is British but Intel gave him American voice
When he lost his ability to speak in 1985 after a necessary tracheotomy, he used a spelling card to communicate. It was tough at first, but he memorized the whole spelling card to communicate with his nurse, Elaine Mason, who later became his second wife.
Only since 1986, he finally has a computer-generated voice attached to his wheelchair. Back then, there was only one set of voice produced which was in American accent.
Now that there are many voices available, Hawking decided to stick to the original voice. He said he prefers it and identifies with it.
At that point, Hawking used his hand to activate a switch to choose among the words available in the computer. It produced up to 15 words per minute. As he gradually lost the use of his hand, he began to control the device with movements of his cheek muscles. Now he is working together with researchers to create a brain pattern or facial expression control for the device.
