A Free PDA Platform for Creating Adaptive Communicators for the Disabled

At the 10th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP) held July 12-14, 2006, at the University of Linz, Austria, staff from the University of Granada, Spain, presented a paper that addressed the communication problems that people with disabilities face and suggested an assistive technology solution that runs on a Pocket PC to enable accessibility options to the disabled.

María Dolores Paredes Garrido presented in her paper the case for generating a platform for creating an augmentative and alternative communicator, based on an adaptive hypermedia that works on a Pocket PC. The Augmentative and Alternative Communication system (AAC) aims at developing devices and techniques to enhance the ability of a disabled person to communicate. A platform called Sc@ut has been created specifically for children with autism to facilitate social integration for their growth.

Autism is a generalized disorder, hindering the development of communication and social skills in children; in fact, 75% of autistic children are retarded. There are 11 different dimensions of autism, however, Sc@ut has been developed to specifically address the problems related to communicative functions like absence of deliberate communication with another person, limited use of words and gestures, serious problems of reciprocity and empathy and problems expressing and understanding language.

The AAC system is a set of structured non-verbal codes and its physical support, which must be learned by the user to perform communicative acts. Sc@ut creates an AAC platform for autistic children that enables them to communicate better and can act as an alternative mother tongue. Sc@ut essentially focuses on the needs of autistic children; however, developments are also taking place to make it accessible for children with cerebral paralysis.

Sc@ut can be used on a Pocket PC to run the communicator and the design of its meta-communicator can create a customized communicator for every child with educator scan. Sc@ut is a potential VOCA (Vocal Output Communication Aids) system that facilitates natural interactions and socializations. The Sc@ut design is equipped with two levels, the lower level that is the communicator used by the child and the higher level, which is the meta-communicator used by the parents and educators to configure the system and get the child acquainted with it.

The communicator is a hypermedia system that enables the child to navigate and select pages with different scenarios. The scenarios are constructed with the knowledge domain of the child and reflect real-life actions with which the child is already conversant. The meta-communicator, on the other hand, enables the parent or educator to create the communicator for the child. This is not a standard configuration; each of them has peculiar features and the child has to adapt to them.

The specification of the user profile consists of the specific data of the child, which is used to model the knowledge domain and then structures using behavior rules. The knowledge domain, represented by means of ontology, is very essential for modeling the world perceived by the child as something he/she can relate to. The communicator generates log files that provide information that can come handy to the educator to make any changes in the profile or scenarios. For the adaptation process, updating rules based on the observed data is provided. If the rules work out well, the meta-communicator suggests the educator the changes that can be performed.

This system offers a great variety of adaptive possibilities for autistic children, for navigations and other educational and pedagogical purposes. Sc@ut is being tested with autistic as well as children with brain paralysis in various schools and has come out with significant results.

See a online (Spanish) demo of Sc@ut at the Granada University website or download the free prototype at the same website (under the button ‘Descargas’)