O emprego de tecnologias de acesso a comunicação, baseados em métodos de acesso por escaneamento, viabiliza novas oportunidades de comunicação para indivíduos com disfunção motora severa. Um dos exemplos mais comuns desse tipo de tecnologia é o teclado virtual operado por varredura. Teclados virtuais são frequentemente utilizados como dispositivos de comunicação aumentativa e alternativa por indivíduos com restrições motoras graves e que apresentam comprometimento da fala e da escrita. São compostos por uma matriz de teclas e simulam a operação de um teclado físico para a composição de mensagens. Uma das limitações desses sistemas é o baixo desempenho que possuem. Taxas de comunicação lentas e a considerável ocorrência de erros são alguns dos problemas que usuários desses dispositivos sofrem durante o uso diário. O desenvolvimento e a avaliação de novas estratégias em comunicação aumentativa e alternativa são essenciais para a melhoria das oportunidades de comunicação dos usuários que fazem uso desse tipo de tecnologia. Neste sentido, este trabalho explora diferentes estratégias para aumentar essa taxa de comunicação e reduzir os erros cometidos por seus usuários. Análises computacionais e práticas foram executadas para a avaliação das estratégias propostas. / The use of access technologies for communication, based on scanning methods, enables new communication opportunities for individuals with severe motor dysfunction. One of the most commom examples of this type of technology is the single switch scanning. Single switch scanning keyboards are often used as augmentative and alternative communication devices for inidividuals with severe mobility restrictions and with compromised speech and writing. They consist of a matrix of keys and simulate the operation of a physical keyboard to write messages. One of the limitations of these systems is their low performance. Low communication rates and considerable errors ocurrence are some of the few problems that users of these devices suffers during daily use. The development and evaluation of new strategies in augmentative and alternative communication are essential to improve the communication opportunities of user who make use of such technology. Thus, this work explores different strategies to increase communication rate and reduce user’s mistakes. Computational and practical analysis were performed for the evaluation of proposed strategies. / Dissertação (Mestrado)

This master thesis deals with issues of development of applications for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in environment of special education for mentally challenged pupils with communication disorders. Thesis presents issues of development contemporary applications and follows on design principles of Computer therapy project, which compliance during the design and implementation should prevent the current issues. The aim of the thesis is creation of application for AAC of YES/NO type and i-CT framework - framework simplifying creation of similar apps for described environment. Both apps works on iOS and Android systems and were tested in an environment of people with mental disabilities.

Personer med afasi lider ofta av sina språkliga svårigheter och upplever dem som ett allvarligt problem. När förmågan till effektiv kommunikation genom talat språk inte räcker till kan ett Alternativt och Kompletterande Kommunikationssätt (AKK) behövas. Det möjliggör att personen, förutom med tal, kommunicerar med till exempel bilder, gester eller tecken. Proceduren att välja ett passande AKK är komplicerad och det händer att ett hjälpmedel som inte passar individens behov sätts in av logoped, eller att ett hjälpmedel inte sätts in alls. För att utveckla och förbättra möjligheten att avgöra om och i så fall vilket hjälpmedel som bör användas har Lasker och Garrett utvecklat bedömningsverktyget The Multimodal Communication Screening Test for persons with Aphasia (MCST-A). Denna studies huvudsyfte var att översätta MCST-A till svenska. Studien delades upp i tre delar; 1) översättning och anpassning av MCST-A till svenska, 2) prövning av översättningen på personer utan afasi samt 3) en första testning på personer med måttlig till grav kronisk afasi där deras resultat på MCST-A jämfördes med en skattning av deras förmåga att kommunicera med AKK i vardagen. Översättningen och anpassningen ledde till en fungerande version på svenska. Resultatet från testningen på personer med afasi går i linje med tidigare forskning, där resultatet på MCST-A speglar personers skattade förmåga att kommunicera med AKK i vardagen. MCST-A kan således vara ett användbart instrument för att avgöra om och på vilken nivå ett hjälpmedel kan användas av en person med afasi. Det är dock inte möjligt att dra en generaliserbar slutsats utifrån denna studies resultat då urvalet var begränsat. / Individuals with aphasia often suffer from their language difficulties and experience them as a serious problem. When the ability to communicate effectively through spoken language is insufficient, an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) may be required. This allows the person, in addition to speech, to communicate with for example pictures, gestures or body language. The procedure for choosing a suitable AAC is complicated, sometimes an aid that doesn’t suit the needs of the individual is provided by speech-language pathologists and sometimes an aid isn’t provided at all. In order to develop and improve the ability to determine if and what aids should be used, Garrett and Lasker developed the assessment tool The Multimodal Communication Screening Test for Individuals with Aphasia (MCST-A). The main purpose of this study was to translate MCST-A into Swedish. The study was divided into three parts; 1) translation and adaptation of MCST-A to Swedish, 2) testing the translation on persons without aphasia, and 3) a first test on persons with moderate to severe chronic aphasia, where their results on MCST-A were compared with an estimate of their ability to communicate with AAC in daily life. The translation and adaptation led to a working version in Swedish. The results from the persons with aphasia is in line with previous research, where the results on MCST-A reflects the estimated ability to communicate with AAC in their daily lives. Thus, MCST-A can be a useful tool to determine whether if and on what level aids can be used by a person with aphasia. However, it’s not possible to draw a generalizable conclusion based on the results of this study as the sample was small.