Category Archives: Case Studies

Jellow, cBoard and Yuudee 2 update – more languages and evaluations.

In the last few months we have seen some very exciting updates appearing from the UNICEF Innovation Funded Jellow, cBoard and Yuudee teams. It has been so interesting acting as mentors and we have been working hard to connect up the Jellow and StraightStreet symbols to ConceptNet so they will soon be available on our site.

The Jellow Communicator on Google Play is now available in Bengali and it won the “#mbillionth South Asia award for Inclusion and Empowerment”

cBoard which is available on Github, has 33 languages on their app, but as the languages are using machine translation they require proofreading, The cBoard team have been asking for translation help – you do not need to be a programmer!

Both these teams aim to use the The Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scales (PIADS) evaluation tool for their apps as it can be translated into any language and has a very easy to understand 26 questionnaire for assessing “the effects of an assistive device on functional independence, well-being, and quality of life”.

Yuudee2 have also been busy with evaluations and training – you might need to use Google Translate if you are not a Chinese linguist and if you select the image below you will also learn more about the interactive nature of their app with its hand drawn animated gifs to aid those with Autism.
Yuudee2

What do symbol users think of our symbols?

voting AWSAJ As part of our project, it is essential that AAC users and persons with communication difficulties evaluate our symbols. This will ensure that the very people that will be using them can provide us with feedback and we can tailor the symbols to their needs. The team contacted the Speech Therapy team at AWSAJ Academy for students with special needs to see if we could do a voting session with some of their students. Dr. Biji Philips arranged for 11 students to vote individually, with 15 minute time slots to complete the task. 2 students; a Tobii user with Cerebral Palsy and another with severe Autism required 30-45 minutes.

The students were given 20 of our symbols to vote on and a voting AWSAJ2 thumbs up and thumbs down symbol to communicate their like/dislike for the symbol. Some students preferred to use okay as an option as well. Based on the student’s capacity judged online, Nadine and I asked why they liked/disliked the symbols. Some of the older students were superb and gave us detailed feedback relating to the need for more detailed facial expressions, or adding context to the symbol rather than just characters. Others did not want to let us down and said they liked the majority of the symbols. Here are the results of the voting sessions:

	Good	Ok	Bad	Comments
Hello (Assalumu alaikum)	11	1		– Not clear, waving or speaking – Saying hi and smiling – He tells how are you – Goodbye – Nice because he’s wearing Thobe – Nice clothes – Clear – Goodbye
Rice & Chicken	12			– Only chicken – Doesn’t look like our food – Chicken
Children	10	2		– Not nice hair – Put them in uniform – Boys
Dance	12			– Very nice – Sing – Nice because he’s dancing properly – Nice design
Eat	9	2	1	– Looks angry – I don’t see plate or water; I like that he’s opening his mouth and has spoon – Eat with hands – Don’t wear Thobe when you eat – Holding pen
First	11		1	– Won – Appropriate for Qatar
Friends	10		2	– Uniform – Like because it has 2^nd and 3^rd – Clear – Thobe are same – It’s nice how they hold each other – All the shoes black color – Shoes different – They shouldn’t hold their hands, it’s a shame
House	12			– White + door white/gray; It’s big – White + smaller – Two thumbs up – Like our house – Qatari houses are different
Hug	12			– Change clothes color – The girl is hugging her mother – Mom cuz wearing Abaya
I	10	1	1	– Needs arrow on top of head – Picture matches meaning – Full body – Not clear
Mother	10	2		– Add rainbow color + lighten colors to look more happy – Child holding hand + smiling – Put Abaya – Should be in Abaya. I know non-Muslims don’t wear it. Should wear Abaya wherever you go – Black Abaya
Pray	11	1		– I like he’s praying – Like him praying – Put him in the house. You don’t pray in the middle of the road – Clear
Nursery	12			– Kids are playing and smiling – Good – School – The colors are nice – Nice colors
Please	5	2	5	– Add text – She’s saying please and child should be angry – Open hands – Tilt head – Telling secrets – Not clear, I can’t see the two hands – Talk – Greeting
Souq Waqif	10	2		– Add a lot of people – It has Thobe and Abaya – Looks like the old days – Didn’t know – Change the buildings
Pray	7		5	– Needs more colors + full mosque – Not clear – Put someone praying + purple sky – There’s a bird – Didn’t know – It’s a mosque, not clear, maybe add colors. – I prefer the other praying symbol – Add colors
Thank you	8	1	3	– Hand gesture is more I love you ; handshake – Hold and shake hands – I do this for thank you – No hand on chest – He’s saying the national anthem – I don’t use this gesture for thank you – Hands greeting
Travel	10		2	– More sky + men with yellow clothes – Need stairs or bus – Terminal – Dad looks like brother – Add airport
You	10		2	– They should look at each other – Context. Add playground – Clothes are so different and shoes are different – Didn’t know – Not clear – Come
Bye	9	1	2	– Show side profile + say bye to someone else – Sad face for saying bye

voting AWSAJ 3

Overall it was a great voting session with some valuable feedback obtained. Speech therapists reinforced the need for such a project, giving the example of one student who “could not look at” a picture card used for inferencing emotions due to the image of the boys not covering their arms (picture to the left). Teachers also report that students felt empowered by giving their feedback as they have always been accustomed to receiving help but on this occasion they felt they were able to help others.

Final voting on Batch One Symbols with AWSAJ Academy and two AAC users.

Voting to decide on types of clothing and types of action symbols

In the past month there have been final voting sessions on the first batch of adapted symbols and the voting on whether symbols should portray individuals just in Qatari dress or a mix and if action words (verbs) where gender is an issue should be portrayed by stick figures or would the dictionary need to have both male and female representations.

More votes on this subject may yet come in from the AAC Forum, but it is felt that the initial 50 votes, as a result of face to face meetings, could be revealed at this stage.

Voting shows 68% want a mix of clothing types

Voting shows 86% want gender specific verbs

Comments for the type of dress needed on the symbols included the following:

“less distracting”, “I like both, but prefer option 1 for Qatar” (voted for just Qatari dress) “one uncovered”, “make one of them dressed in Abaya”, “Make one of the girls wear abaya and one of the males wear a thowb”, “one in abaya and one with no headcover and for male one in thobe”, “add one person from action one”, “I prefer one to wear the abaya, one to wear a normal hijab and one without a hijab”, “with one uncovered hair”, “one girl/boy can be in Arabic traditional dress, one girl can be not covered”,

Comments for the type of drawing needed for verbs included the following:

“To make it more culturally representative and to bring out contrast of figure – around differentiation”, “the colours are clear”, “don’t like stick figures” “colour the stick”.

The decision has been made that we need to have a mix of clothing and verbs will be represented in both male and female where required.

Further voting sessions for adapted symbols took place with AWSAJ Academy teachers working with Arabic AAC users. The online Quick Voting system was used. To date 62 participants’ votes have been logged on the Symbol Manager resulting in 2341 votes for the initial batch of 65 symbols! These now need to be analysed for the comments received and the level of marks given out of 5 for each of the voting criteria – the voters feelings about the symbol generally, whether it was found to be a suitable representation of the word or phrase presented, whether it had sufficient colour contrast levels and cultural sensitivity. For all these criteria the average scores were above 3.9. Where individual symbols have received lower scores in any of the criteria further adaptations will be made taking into account any comments received. These redrawn symbols will be submitted for voting once again alongside new symbols developed for the next batch of voting that will take place in May.

Average scores for symbols in Batch 1 all over 3.9 out of 5

Aejaz and Tullah also met up with two young AAC Users on separate occasions. Aejaz set up a batch of 21 symbols on a grid with 5 versions of thumb positions for the 5 scores for A aged 8, with the support of his father he voted on the symbols and the results were positive with only 3 symbols being marked below the mid point as can be seen with the results below.

When working with M in the Shafallah Center, the criteria for voting was simplified to thumbs up for an acceptable symbol straight across for in the middle and thumbs down for a reject. The latter worked well and once again most symbols were found to be acceptable. It is hoped we will have more case studies to share and batch 2 of the adapted symbols will be voted on during May and early June before Ramadan.

International Symbol Dictionary for AAC

Global Symbols for All

Category Archives: Case Studies

Jellow, cBoard and Yuudee 2 update – more languages and evaluations.

What do symbol users think of our symbols?

Final voting on Batch One Symbols with AWSAJ Academy and two AAC users.