An interactive aid for expressive communication with pictographic symbols

An individual who is unable to acquire skills in natural language communication may frequently find a pictographic symbolic language to be an appropriate alternative means of expression. This paper discusses some underlying features of the communication process and describes a computer-based augmentative aid for communication with pictographic linguistic units, which provides flexibility for user-definition of symbols, inter-symbol mapping and multi-mode expression. The system is consequently a potentially very powerful tool for the development and utilisation of communication processes among groups of users who do not necessarily share access to a common linguistic knowledge base.