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Saturday, April 21, 2012

iOS for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC),

A new study, conducted by David Niemeijer, Ph.D., CEO of AssistiveWare, and done in conjunction with Prof. Anne M. Donnellan, Ph.D. (University of San Diego) and Prof. Jodi A. Robledo, Ph.D. (California State University at San Marcos), explored Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), and the role of iPads, iPod touches and iPhones.

The survey polled 232 people: 17 AAC Users, 98 family members, caregivers and friends of AAC users, and 117 professionals working with AAC users.

The study’s findings include:

  • 60% to 80% of the AAC users and families reported improvements in communication with others, in independence, in behavior, in the atmosphere at home, and in general wellbeing since starting with Proloquo2Go or another full-featured AAC App.
  • About 50% of the adult AAC users and over 55% of the family members and caregivers report an improvement of verbalization and speech for the AAC user.
  • 40-70% of respondents report use of an iOS AAC app to communicate in a variety of other settings beyond the home.
http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/04/19/autism-awareness-ipads-and-developers/

Monday, April 16, 2012

Graduate Student's iPhone App Gives Voice to Disabled Users

Samuel Sennott, a doctoral student in special educaton at Pennsylvania State University's main campus, created an iPhone application that helps people with communication disabilities speak. He worked with David Niemeijer, an Amsterdam-based developer, to build the software, called Proloquo2Go.

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Graduate-Students-iPhone-App/20549/