WWAAC (World Wide AAC) The Internet & AAC Users

1. The ACE Centre WWAAC(World Wide AAC)The Internet& AAC Users

2. WWAAC Consortium Handicom - NL DART - Sweden KTH - Sweden ACE - UK HUSAT - UK Modemo - Finland MITC - Denmark 50P - Sweden

3. The WWAAC Goal Making the Internet more accessible and usable for European AAC users. • E-Mail (one-to-one, one-to-many, mailing lists) • E-chat (chatrooms, discussion forums) • Web access & browsing

4. The WWAAC Goals

5. The WWAAC Goals

6. The WWAAC Stakeholders • Languages & cultures • Denmark, Holland, Finland, Spain, Sweden, UK • AAC end users (young & old) • For example people with:learning disabilities,physical disabilities, language disorder, dysphasia • Facilitators • partners, parents, relatives, carers • Professionals • SLTs, OTs, physios, teachers, rehab engineers, developers, distributors

7. AAC User Issues • Heterogeneous group • Wide range of individual needs • Languages - Literacy - AAC Systems • Visual Acuity & Perception • Cognitive and physical issues

8. The Internet Problems to overcome: • Chaos & complexity • Access to content - language – understanding • Physical access – effectiveness / productivity

9. Principles for adaptation • Simplification • Easy access to basic functionality • Removing unnecessary options & barriers • Support for navigation • Tailoring for multimodal support • Sound / synthetic speech • Graphics, symbols, pictures, photos, text • Efficiency - productivity • “Put a little in to get a lot out” • “Usability” means much more than “accessibility” • Easy and safe installation and maintenance

10. Assistive Technology “Add Ons” • Keyboard/mouse modifiers • On-screen keyboards/grids (Wivik, SAW, Clicker) • Word lists, Prediction, Abbreviation Expansion • Synthetic & Digitised Speech - “reading text”

11. State of the Art • Mainstream Internet Software • Outlook Express & Eudora • Internet Explorer & Netscape • Specialist Internet Software • BlissInternet • SymbolMail • Inter_Comm • Mind Express • Arnit

12. BlissWrite - BlissInternet

13. Blissinternet • http/home.istar.ca/~bci/blin2.htm • Special software using specialist server • Supports Bliss • Automatically translates between languages • ? Open system (uses components Blisswrite and BlissInternet) • Keyboard, mouse and switch accessibility is supported

14. SymbolMail

15. Adapted interface employing standard services (MS Outlook 2000) • Supports PCS and Bliss – (via databases stored on the users computer) • Symbolmail offers a forum for symbol based message composition/editing and email functionality • Open system, but relies on user having MC Outlook 2000 • Default input modality is the keyboard. Symbol users employ their own preferred system/keyboard in accessing the Symbolmail adapted interface. That is, symbol-selection and switch input is not directly supported by Symbolmail • Messages may be sent as HTML or as plain text. Symbolmail will convert incoming text based email into a symbol format where corresponding text-symbol concepts can be identified within the databases

16. Writing with Symbols - Inter_Comm

17. Inter_Comm • Special software using standard server • Supports PCS & Rebus, pictures, and photos symbol sets • The number of email functions (e.g. check inbox, address book) made available to users can be modified. • Currently between PCS and Rebus • Closed system – Inter_Comm works exclusively with WWS2000 • Keyboard, mouse and switch accessibility is supported through WWS2000 • Will convert incoming text based email into a PCS or Rebus symbol format. Recipients without Inter_Comm/Writing with Symbols 2000 software receive text only.

18. ARNIT-FlexIT (A portal to Internet Explorer)

19. ARNIT • ARNIT, is a sever based solution for web-browsing (and email). Symbol users’ facilitators can access the user’s site for personalisation of the user’s interface (e.g. address book) from any computer that can contact the server over the Internet. www.netjob.dk/arnitsvenska

20. The Web Meldreth Manor School Website

21. TASC - www.tascsupport.com

22. Tasc - ….

23. WWAAC – Providing the glue • Preliminary standards for syntactical & semantic text / message encoding • concept encoding & syntactical/semantic tagging of symbols (Bliss, PCS, Picto) • Tools for text support • message conversion and simplification - symbol to symbol, symbol to text with multi-lingual glosses & synthetic/digitised speech output • Tools for task support - web browsing& mail box handling • Guidelines and tools for information presentation on the web for the WWAAC target groups

24. Concept encoding – Bliss for Windows

25. Free-standing Symbol Databases

26. Symbol / language translation & interpretation “For my birthday father will give (gave?) me a small dog.”

27. User Involvement • User Requirements Document • Literature & “state of the art” search • Focus group of professionals to identify key issues • Pilot interviews with UK based AAC end users, facilitators, & professionals • Interviews with the same groups in EU core countries • National Workshops (six countries) • “The Simulator” (Year 1) • WWAAC Beta Software (Year 3) • ISAAC Conference, Denmark (Year 2) • WWAAC Alpha software • User workshop, papers & exhibition • Longitudinal Single Case Involvement

28. Please Help! Mike Clarke or Andrew Lysley The ACE Centre 92 Windmill Road Headington Oxford OX3 7DR Tel: 01865 759800 Fax: 01865 759810 E-mails: clarke@ace-centre.org.uk lysley@ace-centre.org.uk Websites: www.ace-centre.org.uk www.wwaac.org