The first Armenian speaking AAC App development and implementation in Education

• In Event: Education Conflict, Protest and Development

Proposal

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) recognizes the importance of access to assistive technology in several articles and urges states to ensure its availability. The availability and affordability of assistive technologies can be a barrier to their use, especially in countries that have lower state funding to facilitate the acquisition of assistive technology, including high tech like Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).
The latest study (Avagyan, Petrosyan, 2023) investigated the experiences of 51 specialists who regularly use alternative communication means in their practice. The study participant group included 25 speech therapists, 17 special educators, 6 psychologists, and 3 occupational therapists. The average age of the participants was 34.3±6.4. Most of the participants had 5-10 years of work experience. The analysis of the study data showed that the experience of AAC use for 51 professionals involved in the therapy of individuals with complex communication difficulties in different regions of Armenia is very similar. The rate of non-technological alternative communication interventions was times higher than the rate of medium and high-tech AAC interventions. The most frequently used means were picture/symbol based.
This gap is noteworthy because there are about 10 million Armenians in the world using Armenian for communication. It is a unique language with a unique alphabet, grammar and syntax. So, AAC Apps that currently support individuals who are non-verbal in the world don’t provide opportunities to communicate in Armenian.
In 2021 I had an opportunity to apply for the grant of US Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund. I got funds for developing the first Armenian speaking AAC App.
With the team of speech therapists of ARMAV Continuous Education center (Yerevan, Armenia), and Harmony Speech therapy and Diagnostics (California, USA), IT specialists, voice artists, UI UX designer, graphic designer, researcher-consultant from Minnesota University and the App user-consultant I developed the first Armenian talking picture/symbol based AAC App called “Armav AAC”.
This project took a year and effort of the whole team. The following actions were taken:
1. Preparation of materials
This stage was started with development of the core vocabulary list. For development of core vocabulary in the Armenian speaking AAC App the components of core vocabulary were reviewed from Mary Ann Romski and Rose Sevcik’s System for Augmenting Language (SAL) (1996, 2006), V. Khalatyan Armenian Sign language Dictionary (2004), several studies were reported on the importance of core vocabulary based on frequency of use and flexibility across contexts and partners ( Trembath, Balandin, & Togher, 2007). Core vocabulary list includes words that are most commonly used regardless of the situation, communication partner, or age/ disability of the communicator.
Images that were used for the App were developed by a graphic designer.
There is no Speech to text and text to speech program for Armenian language. So, the team could make our App speak only by having recorded voices for each word included in the core vocabulary. The team aimed our Armav AAC App to be user friendly and gender sencitive, so they found 4 voice artists: a man, a woman, a girl and a boy reading all the words. Each recorded word was saved as an MP3 and attached to the appropriate symbol.
As a result the App provides about 1700 words/symbols speaking with 4 different voices.
2. Development of the App
The user interface and user experience designer, IT specialists worked closely to create an App that addresses the communication needs of people with severe communication difficulties and to make it as user friendly as possible.
3. Pilot study
The team opened the access of the APP for fourteen participants of pilot study for a month. The participants were selected by different criteria. They were of different age, gender, and had different disabilities. The team worked closely with families of participants. They developed documents and tools to evaluate the functionality and the impact of the App.
Participants received the feedback forms for pre- and post-pilot interviews. A comparison of pre-post data informed us how the App can be reviewed to become more user friendly. The functionality of the App was examined by parents, caregivers, and health specialists /therapists of the pilot study’s participants. There was only one case where the participant was able to give feedback and fill the forms independently.
One of the pilot study participants was our consultant for the project, a young Armenian girl who lives in Italy. She has severe motor and communication difficulties and uses AAC App for the last 5 years. As a proficient user of English speaking App she provided very useful feedback and recommendations.
The following improvements/changes were provided in the App according to suggestions and comments of pilot study participants:
-More pictures/symbols were added related to health and well being.
-Phrases were created and included in the App.
-Pictures were changed and made more user friendly.
-"History" function was added. Here all sentences and words used by the user are being automatically saved and the user can use them any time he/she needs.
-Some words were recorded, because in some cases there was a quality issue.
4. Final release of the App
After analyzing suggestions, comments received from pilot study participants, the team made final changes, improvements and submission of the App to the App Store and Google Play. This is the first Armenian language high-tech tool for tablets offered free of charge in the App Store and Play market. It provides two main dialects of Armenian: Western and Eastern.
In 2023 UNICEF initiated piloting of the Armav AAC App in the institutions under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The aim is to:
(i) further enhance relevant professionals’ capacity to use high-tech ACC systems
(ii) to increase the awareness and knowledge of key stakeholders and decision - makers related
to access to ACC devices and services and
(iii) to document the data on how to further improve and scale up the use of the Armenian language AAC application.

Author

• Armenuhi Avagyan, Education and Research Foundation