Affiliations: [a] STAKES, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, PL 220, 00531 Helsinki, Finland. Tel.: +358 40 5600935; E-mail: Anna-Liisa.Salminen@stakes.fi | [b] City University, London, UK | [c] University College Cork, Cork, Ireland | [x] SIVA, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS, via Capecelatro 66, I-20148 Milano, Italy. E-mail: serenella.besio@siva.it | [y] STAKES, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, PL 220, 00531 Helsinki, Finland. Tel.: +358 40 5600935; E-mail: Anna-Liisa.Salminen@stakes.fi
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Abstract: This study investigated the impact of Bliss-based computer augmented communication (CAC) on the daily communication and activities of six severely disabled speech-impaired children and youngsters – from the point of view of the children and youngsters, and their discussion partners and therapists. The study investigated CAC during the first year of its use in real life settings. The implementation process of CAC was highly individual and context dependent. During the study all of the speech-impaired participants learned to operate their CAC devices. Their initial enthusiasm began to decline three to six months after the participants received their devices. At the end of the study year, the CAC devices were hardly used for face-to-face communication, but they were used mainly for educational purposes, written communication, or play and leisure. The main reasons for not using the CAC devices were their poor usability, slow operation speeds and insufficient vocabularies, as well as a lack of related services. The speech-impaired children considered the CAC devices important for them and primarily helpful for schoolwork and play.
Keywords: alternative and augmentative communication, computer augmented communication, assistive technologies, speech-impaired children and youngsters, user perspective, qualitative research
