Augmentive and alternative communication (AAC) systems

Over the past fortnight I have spent a few days volunteering at a local school for people with disabilities. We were specifically helping out with some Boccia tournaments, to let the students practise playing and refereeing. Boccia is an adapted version of Boules so that people with a range of disabilities are able to get involved. This sport is in the Paralympics and Great Britain won 2 medals in Boccia in 2012.

Here is a link to a BBC page, which gives a simple introduction to the sport: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/pe/video/boccia/

I was helping one person in particular who had severe disabilities and it fascinated me how he used a machine with eye-control software to communicate – so I decided to learn more about Speech Generating Devices (SGD) and other AAC systems.

The most famous person who uses such a computer is Stephen Hawking. Hawking has motor neurone disease, meaning he has progressive weakness, muscle atrophy and dysarthria. This illness means that he is unable to talk so he has had to find another way to communicate. 

His first method was an Equalizer, designed by Walter Woltosz, where he pressed a switch to select the right word from the screen. Then David Mason made it more sophisticated by attaching the screen to his wheelchair and writing a programme to speak out loud the words he wrote. 

Now Hawking uses a tablet computer, with software from Intel ® Corporation. This software is called EZ Keys and Hawking can move the cursor and type by moving his upper cheek, near his eye. As quoted from Stephen Hawking:

‘My cheek movement is detected by an infrared switch that is mounted on my spectacles. This switch is my only interface with the computer. EZ Keys includes a word prediction algorithm, so I usually only have to type the first couple of characters before I can select the whole word. When I have built up a sentence, I can send it to my speech synthesizer. I use a separate hardware synthesizer, made by Speech+. It is the best I have heard, although it gives me an accent that has been described variously as Scandinavian, American or Scottish.’

Another famous figure who used a similar machine was Tony Nicklinson, who you may remember had a court battle to allow assisted suicide. None of his work would have been possible without his AAC machine, allowing him to talk although he had Locked-in Syndrome. 

Although these are the most well-known cases, the need for AAC is incredibly common. Here are some FAQs about alternative and alternative communication.

 1) What is AAC?

 AAC is a general term which refers to any communication methods that supplement spoken speech.

2) Who can use AAC?

It may surprise you to know that everyone uses AAC to a certain extent as hand gestures such as waving is a form of unaided communication. However, people with serious medical conditions need more sophisticated techniques to be understood. Examples of such conditions include cerebral palsy, head injury or those who have had a stroke.

     3) What different types are there?

The main classifications of AAC is if they are unaided, aided, low tech or high tech. Unaided AAC does not require any external device and it can include gestures, facial expressions and sign languages. Aided versions are when a tool is used to help receive or produce speech, for example SGDs. Low tech and high tech are pretty self-explanatory – the terms only means that some types of tools use electronics to run. 

       4) Have there been any modern developments in this field of linguistics?

Research is ongoing and there have been many improvements to the machines used. For example, last year, an article was released about how there are now programmes that record gestures of sign languages and translate them into written text or spoken language. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have used Microsoft’s Kinect Webcam that can translate hand, facial and/or body movement in ASL into written English and convert English text to ASL.

Here is a news article and a video showing this computer programme:

http://phys.org/news/2013-07-kinect-deaf-people-video.html

5) What are the problems of using AAC?

In many cases, AAC help people to communicate, be more independent and consequently have a better standard of living. However, there is no perfect form of AAC, it all depends on the persons’ own situation and therefore they may have to try a range of different techniques before they find the best method. This is time consuming and costs a lot of money, so it is really important that charities get donations so that they are able to help. If you would like to donate or sponsor the school that I volunteered for, please email me using the form on the right and I will email you the link to the website.