Adaptation of Augmentative and Alternative Communicators through the study of interactions with high-tech solution users

Abstract

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (aac) strategies ease communication tasks for people who require accessible solutions. These strategies are usually addressed by technological solutions such as mobile applications. This research seeks clues on the development of such applications by analyzing user interactions with Android application PictoDroid Lite, an aac communicator. This study considered a data set containing more than 85,000 interactions of users from more than 50 countries. The goal was to identify the primary needs reflected in the users’ behavior and how these applications handle them, providing other researchers and developers with relevant information about how users interact with these applications. We detected areas of improvement regarding the adaptation to users’ needs in terms of profiling, smart suggestions, and time habits.