AssistiveWare ushers in next generation of AAC technology

May perhaps 17, 2023

Characteristic

AssistiveWare ushers in subsequent generation of augmentative and option conversation technological innovation

How application improvement firm AssistiveWare is innovating augmentative and option communication software program

Each afternoon, 9-year-previous Jay accompanies his mom Meghan Ashburn and his twin brother Nick to Virginia Beach front, exactly where they unwind from the day’s stimulation at faculty, in their property, and out in the relaxation of the environment.

When Ashburn asks Jay why he loves the beach, he picks the “sunset” button, then suggests, “No school. Yes beach.”

In 2015, Jay was diagnosed with autism. By the age of 4, he commenced employing Proloquo2Go, an augmentative and alternative interaction (AAC) app created by growth business AssistiveWare, accessible for Apple iphone and iPad.

“The beach front has constantly been a location where Jay can examine and relax on his phrases,” Ashburn describes. “As a relatives, we stop by as generally as the climate enables. He loves the sand, the waves, and the gorgeous sunsets.”

Proloquo2Go embodies AssistiveWare’s mission: to make AAC an productive and approved usually means of communication. A wide range of persons adopt these applications when they’re unable to make oral speech, such as all those with ALS, cerebral palsy, autism, and extra.

Bringing this technologies to Apple gadgets represented a considerable change for AAC people and David Niemeijer, AssistiveWare’s founder and CEO. With AAC readily available on shopper gadgets, the selection of people today who could afford and use the engineering ballooned. This also enabled AssistiveWare’s speedy development.

“One of the coolest things about the iPad and the Apple iphone is that they’re not different products,” states Niemeijer. “They’re great equipment that anyone else employs, way too, and that has by now made a important variance in its acceptability. But we however have extra perform to do.” 

AssistiveWare’s up coming era of AAC applications, Proloquo and Proloquo Mentor, grew to become accessible in 2022. Beyond generating speech, Proloquo helps consumers create phrases or sentences, find out similar words and phrases, and increase their language and grammar. Proloquo Mentor provides families and educators with the tools to help young children and learners in their discovering.

Proloquo options 49 genuine kids and adult’s text-to-speech voices and 12,000 text — about three instances much more than other AAC apps. AssistiveWare applications also support VoiceOver and Swap Handle for buyers who are blind or very low eyesight, or have constrained mobility.

For AAC end users, Niemeijer thinks discovering a customizable encounter is an vital action. Apple’s new accessibility attributes — previewed this 7 days — consist of Assistive Accessibility for men and women with cognitive disabilities, and Personalized Voice for all those at danger of dropping their skill to communicate, providing users additional alternatives to tailor their experiences to their wants.

“We’re definitely fired up to integrate these new options into AssistiveWare’s applications,” Niemeijer claims. “We lately launched assist for iOS’s constructed-in voices in Proloquo, so consumers have entry to an even wider selection of voices to opt for from. The introduction of Own Voice has the probable to present our end users with even a lot more alternatives to personalize how they communicate. This, blended with options like Assistive Entry, will enrich the opportunities readily available to us to customize the person practical experience and enable buyers to tailor our applications to their personality and requires.”

Now, Jay utilizes Proloquo and other modes of interaction to communicate to his spouse and children, academics, and close friends. Kids make up 80 percent of Proloquo customers: Jay is one of the app’s 100,000 day by day users and 300,000 general end users around the planet.

“The consciousness of AAC amid the public will improve in the next five yrs,” suggests Ashburn, who previously taught elementary university. Jay learns in a normal 3rd grade course. “It’s a big offer, due to the fact he’s nonspeaking and they are likely to get divided.” Jay’s third grade classmates also use Proloquo as one way of interacting with him.

“Proloquo’s unlimited sharing capacity is most likely my favored function. I can create an AAC workforce for Jay. His teachers, extended relatives, and even classmates have access to Proloquo on their particular products for free,” Ashburn carries on. “I just cannot even explain how helpful that is. It’s such a video game changer in terms of leveraging AAC.” 

Jay is now suffering from advancement in his speech, and makes use of Proloquo to observe speaking. To study new terms, he presses the button once again and all over again, right until he can start speaking the term or phrase himself. “Shut the door” is a phrase Ashburn says she often hears, as Jay enters his preteen decades.

“Many AAC choices limit the words and phrases a baby can pick out from,” claims Ashburn. “Proloquo has these types of a large vocabulary that Jay can pick nearly any term he needs. The constructed-in keyboard can make his choices limitless.”

Again in Amsterdam, AssistiveWare’s crew of scientists, AAC authorities, designers, builders, and top quality assurance engineers — such as 27 community workforce and an added 35 all around the world — innovate the technological innovation driving the solutions and thrust forward investigation and advocacy work around AAC. “Most study in this subject appears to be like at the change that transpires on an intervention for a solitary individual,” Niemeijer clarifies. “We instead have consent-centered nameless facts on tens of countless numbers of AAC consumers. Which is not frequent. We bring insights from a larger scale to the desk, which leads to attention-grabbing conversations.”

Apple’s Guided Obtain, an accessibility setting launched a decade ago to prohibit devices to a solitary app, radically enhanced the app’s likely. “Before that, just one of the worries family members and schools had was that the youngster would get started in a communication app, but then leap out and go to one more application,” claims Niemeijer. “With Guided Accessibility, it was doable to continue to keep the target on studying and communicating.” 

Establishing for the Apple ecosystem holds yet another important advantage: Apple maintains program help for yrs, producing it a audio expenditure for households and educational institutions. 

“It provides us the time and space to focus on innovation,” Niemeijer states. “That way, AssistiveWare does not get trapped in the past.”

For the next era of AAC buyers, Niemeijer hopes this type of interaction becomes as extensively approved as texting. Much more than creating the engineering, the stigma all over AAC signifies the largest hurdle for its people.

“I nevertheless feel we have a lengthy way to go,” says Niemeijer. “If you can’t talk, the assumption is nevertheless that you probably do not have considerably to say. That assumption is the biggest trouble. I hope to see a shift toward respecting this engineering so it can have the largest effect.”

Push Contacts

D’Nara Cush

Apple

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Apple Media Helpline

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