Marina Calleja-Reina
Málaga University, Spain
Title: A new app for people with disability and their settings : Enhancing Communication (EC+)
Biography
Biography: Marina Calleja-Reina
Abstract
It is normal for people to have sufficient resources to be able to carry out communicative exchanges, among which the ability to speak as a fundamental means of transmitting communication stands out. However, sometimes there are certain circumstances that make some people have little or no possibility of using speech to carry out the communicative exchanges. In this case we refer to the people affected as people with "Complex Communication Needs" (CCN)
Due to the difficulty or inability to use speech as a natural means of communication, people with CCN will need to resort to systems or strategies of Augmentative and Alternative Communication to carry out communicative exchanges.
EC + is an application (henceforth app) free of charge whose purpose is to increase functional communicative competence in people with Intellectual Disability. It is a downloadable app on mobile phones and tablets and its purpose is to serve as an AAC device with a high technological level. With this app we have tried to alleviate some of the disadvantages that we have detected in the use of AAC devices. The first to be free and available for phones and tablets both Android and IOS can be used by a large number of users. On the other hand, given that it has been designed taking into account the needs of the specific population, people with ID and their interlocutors (habitual or punctual).