New software enables communication for students with severe disabilities

ITPro featured an interesting article late last week about a new application called "How was School Today?" The simple question after which the software is named is hardly simple for non-verbal or severely disabled students. These students often must rely upon time-consuming computerized devices to hold even brief, tiring conversations.

With How was School Today, however,

...a sensor [is] attached to a child’s wheelchair which in turn tracks where they have been and what they have done during their day. Swipe cards enable adults, such as carers or teachers, to log when they have interacted with the child and a recorder is built in allowing people to add in more details about what the child has done.

The software also includes "natural language generation." According to one of the sponsors/developers of the system,

At the end of the day the computer then generates simple sentences that can be personalised by the child, such as choosing the order of what is being said. The sentences are then read aloud by an electronic voice giving parents a summary of their child’s school day.

Although initially targeted at students with physical disabilities like cerebral palsy that dramatically affect speech, "plans are now in place to further evaluate the system to examine how it could be used to support children with different levels and types of impairments."