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Assistive technology
Published in Alex Mihailidis, Roger Smith, Rehabilitation Engineering, 2023
L. Alvarez, A. Cook, J. Polgar
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is a form of AT that supports people who have complex communication needs (CCN) across their lifespan. AAC strategies include high-tech solutions such as speech-generating devices (SGDs), which are devices or apps that produce digitally recorded or synthesized speech output. People with CCN who obtain SGDs can live independently, develop social relationships and be active members of their communities (Bryen, Cohen and Carey 2004; Collier 2005). AAC also includes low-tech solutions, such as unaided or body-based communication. These strategies require only the person's own body, such as pointing and other gestures, pantomime, facial expressions, eye-gaze and manual signing or finger spelling. Users may also benefit from aided AAC including a pen or pencil, a letter or picture communication board, a computer, a cellphone or an SGD.
An AAC Communication Device for Patients with Total Paralysis
Published in J. Dinesh Peter, Steven Lawrence Fernandes, Carlos Eduardo Thomaz, Advances in Computerized Analysis in Clinical and Medical Imaging, 2019
Oshin R. Jacob, Sundar G. Naveen
Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) is the term used to define various ways of communication other than speech, especially used by people with physical impairments. AAC has become the need of the century as 1.4% of the world’s population suffer from developmental disorders.1 The difficulty faced by the patients to convey his/her basic needs is a major challenge seen among this population. Often it requires the caretaker to intuitively understand the feelings and requirements of the patient and tend to them.2 Of these, communication difficulties are extreme in case of tetraplegic and quadriplegic patients. Therefore, in order to design a device which is marketable among these sections of patients, it is important to understand the psychological mindset of the rural sect with respect to communication disabilities. One of the major parameters which must be considered in order to make a successful AAC device marketable (other than affordability) is the mortality rate of people associated with disorders relating to speech impairment. This is because mortality rate is inversely proportional to the demand of AAC devices among poorer sections of the society. High mortality rates are observed in cases associated with total paralysis, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and stroke, especially in poor countries, made worse by bad health conditions.3 Popular AAC devices available for such patients are brain computer interfaces (BCI) and eye trackers which are costly, making these devices a priority than a necessity among the poorer sections of the society.4 BCIs are still in their infancy in terms of development, and eye trackers involve complex computational algorithms, both of which directly contribute to the cost of the device. Cheaper devices like communication boards show inefficiency among tetraplegic patients. Thus, it is an emerging need to develop a communication device that is cheap, portable, available, and affordable. This chapter discusses such a device that uses blow from the patient to select predefined sentences on the device, which then gets communicated to the caretaker as speech.
A retrospective chart review of the patient population accessing augmentative & alternative communication at an urban assistive technology center
Published in Assistive Technology, 2023
Allison Bean, Julia Zezinka, Carmen DiGiovine, Amy Miller Sonntag, Megan Case
Assistive technology includes equipment, devices, apparatuses, services, systems, processes, and environmental modifications that improve the quality of life of individuals with disabilities and older adults (Hersh & Johnson, 2008). Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is a subset of assistive technology (AT) that provides individuals who are unable to rely on natural speech an alternative way to fully access, participate in, and influence their environment (Beukelman & Miranda, 2013). Nearly 97 million individuals worldwide and five million Americans cannot rely on their natural speech to communicate making them candidates for AAC (Beukelman & Light, 2020). Given that communication is an essential human right (UN General Assembly, 1948), it is critical to ensure that everyone who is a candidate for AAC is able to pursue that option if they choose. An important first step in this process is determining who is pursuing AAC intervention services. With technology playing an ever-increasing role in our lives, it is likely that some, though not all, individuals who are pursuing AAC may have previous experience with technology (e.g., smartphones, tablets). It is possible that these individuals may have already developed specific ideas around what features are most important to them.
Conversation turns and speaking roles contributed by Mandarin Chinese dyadic conversations between adults who use speech-generating devices and adults who use natural speech
Published in Assistive Technology, 2022
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is a unique mode of conversation employed to temporarily or permanently compensate for communication disorders, maximize effective and efficient conversation, and actively communicate with family, peers, colleagues, and communities (American Speech-Language -Hearing Association, 2002, 2005; Beukelman & Mirenda, 2013; Calculator, 2007; Tsai, 2013). A speech-generating device (SGD) is an aid to verbally “speak” selected messages through digitized or synthesized speech (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2013; Quist & Lloyd, 1997). In the past two decades, these two studies (i.e., Muller & Soto, 2002; Tsai, 2013) investigated the contributed conversation turns of English speaking adult conversation dyads between adults who use SGDs and adults who use natural speech.
Caregivers’, teachers’, and assistants’ use and learning of partner strategies in communication using high-tech speech-generating devices with children with severe cerebral palsy
Published in Assistive Technology, 2021
Helena Tegler, Mia Pless, Monica Blom Johansson, Karin Sonnander
Children with severe physical, communicative, and cognitive impairments can benefit from unaided and aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). AAC has positive effects on functional communication, challenging behaviors, and receptive and expressive language skills (Drager, Light, & McNaughton, 2010). Examples of unaided AAC are facial expressions, gestures, vocalizations, and movements. Aided AAC include external equipment, for example communication boards with pictures or graphic symbols, or a speech generating device (SGD). SGDs range from mid-tech battery-operated SGDs to high-tech computerized SGDs with synthetic or digitalized speech (Myrden, Schudlo, Weyand, Zeyl, & Chau, 2014). SGDs give individuals with severe communication impairments a voice and enable their participation in education, in face-to-face communication, and in communication over a distance (Caron & Light, 2016; Ganz et al., 2017; Holmqvist, Thunberg, & Peny Dahlstrand, 2017). SGDs can be directly accessed with selection aids such as pointing, trackballs, joysticks, and contacts, or by eye gaze technology. In recent decades, SGDs accessed using eye gaze technology have become more readily available, which provides individuals with severe physical and communicative impairments with enriched communicative opportunities (Borgestig, Sandqvist, Ahlsten, Falkmer, & Hemmingsson, 2016; Townend et al., 2016).