Hi everyone! Today I created this site to collect information on the apps that I have published on the play store.

The first project I am dedicating myself to is an app that uses the Arasaac system to help people with communication difficulties.

Quoting the arasaac.org website:

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems are forms of expression other than spoken language, which aim to increase the possibilities (augmentative) and/or compensate (alternative) the communication and verbal language difficulties of many people with disabilities.

Who are the main users of this type of system

The symbols can help anyone who has difficulty with expressive language due to different reasons (autism, cognitive disability, lack of speech, elderly, etc.). or who simply do not understand the language (foreign people, migrants…).

Children with special educational needs (autism, cognitive disability, Down syndrome, hearing impairment…)

For most children with some of these difficulties, language development is a challenge that is facilitated with visual supports. In most of these cases, communication with symbols becomes augmentative because these aids are a way to develop oral and written language to some extent. On the other hand, visual supports are a way to make their environment more predictable and understandable, facilitate learning and the development of life skills.

Children and adults with serious physical difficulties (cerebral palsy, head trauma, stroke…)

In cases where motor skills are impaired and do not allow the use of oral language, the use of symbols becomes an alternative communication system that allows people to connect with their world and communicate not only their needs, requirements, or desires, but also their ideas, emotions and opinions.

People in healthcare or emergency situations

If someone is intubated in a hospital’s intensive care unit, has had an accident, or is in shock after suffering a seizure and is unable to speak, symbols can be used as a communication system that allows the user to express how they feel. hears and what happened, thus allowing the professional to obtain information about the patient. In other cases, communication through symbols allows doctors to explain medical procedures when patients do not speak the local language and to obtain their informed consent.

Elderly people

In some cases, older people suffer from cognitive impairment due to aphasia, Alzheimer’s, dementia or other psychiatric diseases that require the use of an augmentative or alternative communication system with symbols that allow them to communicate. These visual aids can be a temporary or permanent aid.

Children starting to read or with reading difficulties

Symbols can help children understand written text when they are starting to read or when they have difficulty decoding the meaning of the written word. In other cases such as dyslexia, it can help improve the decoding process in reading and avoid letter confusions. In general, it contributes to word learning through global reading. This is why we always recommend that symbols are accompanied by text below or above them.

Learning a language as a second language

For native speakers who are learning a second language or for non-native speakers (immigrants) who arrive in a country and need to learn the native language, visual aids have the same function as children who are starting to read: understanding texts in native language and communicate in the early stages.

Tourists and visitors from foreign countries

In places where they receive many tourists or foreigners live for a limited period of time, the symbols are used to facilitate cognitive accessibility to the culture (museums, monuments, attractions…), to facilitate shopping ( communication tables adapted to different types of shops) and the possibility of eating in a restaurant (adapted menus) but also to facilitate access to administrative procedures when the person temporarily residing in a place needs it

For everyone

For those moving to an unfamiliar place within or outside their country, the use of visual aids will allow them to more easily access and orient themselves in the environment and communicate with other people. We live in a predominantly visual world and therefore symbols, which are part of the visual language around us, are familiar and easy to understand.