Plateform AAC – HIVE
Phase 1
Type of project: Prototype
Disability concerned: Autism and pervasive development disorders, Mental disability, Multiple disabilities, Communication disability
Topics: Communication, Communication disability, Support
Status: Completed
AAC-HIVE is a collaborative IT platform project promoting collaboration between professionals supporting people with communication disabilities and their communication partners. AAC-HIVE makes it possible to exchange observations from the different social contexts of people with communication disabilities, and to share assessments and intervention objectives.
Communication disabilities, and the deployment of Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) tools to promote social participation and self-determination for people with this disability, require collaboration between professionals and communication partners, whether familiar or not, to enable the use of these AAC tools in the person’s different social contexts and the evaluation of practices.
Evaluation grids for teams, translated into French, exist in paper form (Martin et al., 2017; Ryan & Renzoni 2019) but do not facilitate regular collaboration. A platform in English, not translated into French, is limited to certain aspects of evaluation (ROCC, Sampson, 2019).
A series of speech and language therapy master’s theses are working on the development of an online questionnaire and evaluation grid. These dissertations are preparing the content for the AAC-HIVE collaborative platform.
The AAC-HIVE platform is a prototype designed to foster this collaboration. It can be accessed on a computer as well as on a tablet or smartphone. Access to the observations entered in the server by the communication partners is limited to the person’s communication partners and the data is protected.
A calendar enables team members to organise face-to-face or videoconference exchanges on the platform. A forum is also available for asynchronous exchanges. A home page gives access to information about the person’s communication style, communication passport, current objectives to be worked on and a view of completed assessments. A space is provided for uploading videos from different social contexts. An e-learning area may be developed in the future.
This ‘prototype’ project focused on the platform’s content and technical aspects.
The development of the questionnaire and grid was followed by focus groups with speech therapists specialising in AAC. Further interviews were conducted with the families of two children and their specialist teachers, who took part in a communication evaluation. Changes to the content were made on the basis of the feedback received.
Next, the structure of the platform, its installation on the server and the definition of the types of access rights for future users were worked on at the same time.
Meetings were held to define the desired model and the adjustments and corrections required (development or insertion of a questionnaire, a video-conferencing application, data processing). A ‘user experience’ study, i.e. UX Design, has also been carried out but remains to be put into practice.
A ‘Research’ phase has followed on from this project. The quality of the evaluation tool will be assessed. Focus groups are continuing with academics, CAA experts and other families.
Additional training content is planned and will also be evaluated.
Following the focus groups, the IT teams are proposing improvements. The notion of participation and the involvement of communication partners, who are not necessarily AAC experts, in the development of this platform is essential. The UX/UI ‘user experience’ approach is being pursued. Lastly, this project will be presented at conferences, as it has already been in Mexico and Toulouse, and will shortly give rise to a scientific publication in France.