Co-Construction for AAC Devices

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There are approximately 4 million Americans with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPIs) who must rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems to express themselves. People with SSPI are at asignificant disadvantage when communicating. AAC systems place heavy cognitive and physical demands on users, resulting in very slow communication rates. The AAC user spends so much time and energy constructing messages, there is often little time for typical turn taking sequences or sustained conversation. Cultural rules for successful interactions are violated. The communication partners are disadvantaged as well, often waiting for minutes with no means for reciprocal engagement before a single message isgenerated. Currently, the communication partners have no clear mechanism to help the AAC user formulate messages, even if they have shared knowledge about the vocabulary. Is there a way for us to capitalize on the physical skills, language skills and