A picture communicator for symbol users and/or speech-impaired people

There are several approaches to producing communication aids for people with disabilities. The system described here takes the approach of utilizing as much mainstream hardware as possible, and adapting it with some modular software tools which have been designed to facilitate the building of customized symbol communication systems. The target audience are clients who are symbol users and/or have a speech impairment. The system provides several levels of screens, each of which can contain grids of scalable icons. A number of input methods are provided including keyboard, switch, mouse and touch-screen. Digitized and/or text to speech synthesis can be used for reinforcement of selections and for communication. The structure of the system is discussed and initial feedback from the first field trials is presented.