VOICER IN MOBILE PLATFORM TO FACILITATE COMMUNICATION

FOR THE DISABLED

INTRODUCTION• The number of disabled people in Brazil raised from

14,5% to near 24%. Among those, 2,5 million people present difficulties in communication and interpersonal interaction;

• The importance of Assistive Technology (AT), mainly focused on communication, which is referred as Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC);

• Voicers;• The main goal of this work is to implement and provide a

free open source voicer called VoxLaPS, for mobile devices.

MOTIVATION

• Commercially available voicers with a rigid platform, without adjustments capacity, and costly;

• Smartphones and tablets more financially accessible;

• Digital and Social Inclusion;• NEDETA partnership.

METHODOLOGY

• Implementation in 3 parts: base, screen navigation and customization;

• Application development with Agile Methodology;

• Tests with doctors of several specialities after the completion of each one of the application parts.

ARCHITECTURE

SYNTHESIS

• The SVOX synthesizer was used, with the voice "Luciana" in Brazilian Portuguese;

VOICER PROTOTYPE

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

CONCLUSION• According to the parcial results:– Important tool;– Support to medical treatments;– Well-accepted by specialist doctors;– Simplicity and Ease of Use;– Great advance in the AAC field;

• The tool can also assist in Portuguese teaching;• Importance of tests with real patients;• Partnership with treatment and rehabilitation centers of

people with disabilities, of all ages, and state hospitals.

Authors Contact

• Ana Irene Alves de Oliveira

anairene25@gmail.com• Nelson Cruz Sampaio Neto

dnelsonneto@gmail.com• Larissa de Sousa Guimarães

larasi2009@gmail.com