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Design and evaluation of ECO: an augmentative and alternative communication tool

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Abstract

Current technology provides new challenges to improve skills on people with special necessities. In fact, persons with communications needs can take advantage of new devices and mobile applications to interact and communicate easily and in the most straightforward way. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems are oriented to users who cannot use natural language due to temporary or permanent impairments, providing an alternative to natural language for communication. In this paper, we present design guidelines for easy communication application (ECO), an AAC tool designed with a user-centered design approach to make functional communication easier for individuals with complex communication needs. ECO tool has two well-defined modules: the Communication User and the Communication Manager. The former is thought as an AAC tool, while the Communication Manager module provides a way to edit the content and fit the dynamics of use and application design to the user’s interests. In addition, we present an evaluation of the ECO tool from two different perspectives. On the one hand, we have achieved a heuristic-based expert evaluation in order to analyze the functionality corresponding to the Communication Manager module of the tool, in order to check main accessibility requirements and improve functionality accordingly. On the other hand, we have evaluated both the communication manager and communication user modules in a real context, carrying out a qualitative evaluation with final users and their therapists to check whether the tool is useful in concrete daily scenarios. Results corroborate research questions, demonstrating that ECO meets the most important accessibility requirements and it is highly valued by experts and end-users.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Spanish Government (MASSIVE project RTI2018-095255-B-I00 and TELCO4IOT project PGC2018-099945-B-I00), the Madrid Research Council (FORTE-CM project P2018/TCS-4314), the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (IDiLyCo project TIN2015-66655-R and CANTOR project PID2019-108927RB-I00), and by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (DeepEMR project TIN2017-87548-C2-1-R). We also want to thank the experts, therapists and final users who participated in the evaluation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Network Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

    Daniel Guasch & Israel Martín-Escalona

  2. Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    José A. Macías

  3. Facultad de Informática, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Virginia Francisco & Raquel Hervás

  4. Computer Science and Engineering Department, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Lourdes Moreno

  5. Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain

    Susana Bautista

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  1. Daniel Guasch
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  2. Israel Martín-Escalona
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  3. José A. Macías
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  4. Virginia Francisco
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  5. Raquel Hervás
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Correspondence to Daniel Guasch.

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Guasch, D., Martín-Escalona, I., Macías, J.A. et al. Design and evaluation of ECO: an augmentative and alternative communication tool. Univ Access Inf Soc 21, 827–849 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-021-00819-x

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