A group of
students at IIT-Bombay recently developed an app that helps children with
cerebral palsy, autism and down syndrome communicate
Students
of IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay recent ly developed an app that aids
communication in children and adults who are learning to speak or have speech
difficulties. The app, Jellow communicator, uses icons to speak and read, and
can be used by anyone with cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder, down
syndrome and a brain injury.
“Children
with cerebral palsy often have speech difficulties. This can significantly
limit their ability to communicate with their peers while impacting their
social and cognitive development. Jellow was envisioned to help these children
communicate with their surrounding world,“ says Sudha Srinivasan, post-doctoral
fellow, IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay.
The
groundwork for the app, for which the team conceived a novel visual emotional
language protocol, began in 2004 during a project under Microsoft Design Expo.
It is composed of nine central category buttons and six expressive side
buttons. The content of the category buttons has been developed to include
common activities and objects people encounter in their daily lives. The
expressive buttons comprise expressions such as like don't like, yes want, no
don't want, more and less. To speak using the app, a user needs to press a
category button followed by any of the expressive side-buttons.For example, by
selecting the `eating' category and then the `like' option (happy face), the
app will say, `I like to eat'.
The app
has over 8,200 lines of pre-programmed sentences in English and Hindi each. In
addition, using the keyboard feature, users can make the app speak customtyped
sentences.
“The user
studies we conducted provided us with insights and guidelines in terms of
content, visual design and information architecture. The biggest challenge in
this process was to ensure that the app is compatible with devices with varying
screen sizes and resolutions,“ adds Srinivasan.
The app is
available for free on Google playstore and has been downloaded by over 900
users since its launch in January this year.
Source: TIMES OF INDIA-13th February,2017
