RSVP-iconCHAT: A Single-Switch, Icon-Based AAC Interface

29th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference Scientific/Research Proceedings, San Diego, 2014Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems are often used by people with speech impairments severe enough to preclude the use of spoken communication. Due to concomitant mobility and language constraints, many of these individuals use icon-based systems controlled by switches. Single-switch AAC systems are typically simplifications of multi-array AAC systems that share elements of the same interface layout, but support some form of scanning, such as linear or row-column. From a development standpoint, this conversion technique makes it easy to transform almost any AAC system into a single-switch system; however, it means that most of these systems were originally designed for users with much greater mobility. The purpose of this work was to design an icon-based AAC interface specifically for use with binary signals, such as switches. A usability study was conducted with both non-disabled adults as well as adults with speech and mobility impairments to determine performance bounds and observe individual use cases. Results indicated similar learning curves for both groups and promising performance characteristics for the target population. These results have immediate applications to the design of icon-based AAC and implications for mobile, icon-mediated communication platforms