Platform AAC
Evaluation of the change in practice as part of the development and deployment of a collaborative platform prototype, between professionals and family carers, within the framework of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
Phase 2
Type of project: Exploratory research
Disability concerned: Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Mental disability, Polydisability, Communication disability
Topics: Autonomy, Education, Social participation, Sharing practices
Status: In progress
The aim of this project is to develop a platform to help with the support of adults and children with communication disabilities.
Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) refers to the means and methods used in the case of impairments affecting communication and language, such as developmental or acquired language disorders, intellectual development disorders, autism spectrum disorders or cerebral palsy. Deploying these resources in people’s environment reduces their communication disability (CD), a consequence of the interaction between disability and social context. Sign language-inspired gestures, technology and pictograms make communication more accessible and enable people with CD to participate in society.
Those responsible for AAC projects must be able to obtain observations from different contexts for both the initial assessment and during the course of the project. These observations concern the person with CD and their communication partners. The level of training and the representations of communication partners are factors in the success of AAC resources. General information about the person (motivations for communicating, etc.) and their productions in context are also relevant. Contextual information limits the number of people who abandon the means of communication.
This project involves the development of a collaborative platform for the transdisciplinary teams involved. It aims to: 1. evaluate the use of this platform by identifying resolved needs and changes in practices, 2. evaluate the quality of the content of both the modules and the IT platform in terms of user experience (UX) and functionality, 3. forward requests for modifications to the IT company involved, as well as 4. requests for modifications to items that have already been drafted, and 5. identify needs for the ‘training’ module.
