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Expressing through digital photographs: an assistive tool for persons with aphasia

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Abstract

This paper describes the design of an assistive tool called CoCreation that can help people with aphasia to express daily experiences by utilizing digital photographs. CoCreation can upload the user’s pictures and can cluster them as a function of the time at which the pictures were taken. Pictures taken within a short period of time are assumed to highlight a single activity. The user is able to select a cluster and can edit the pictures by dragging icons or drawing on top of them, or by typing words to create a caption. The pictures set the context for a story, while the additional tools such as keyboard and drawing pad allow the user to add information that is considered useful for sharing the experience. The paper presents the detailed design process and the preliminary evaluation of CoCreation with an experienced speech therapist.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the support of the speech therapist. We are grateful to the research participants for their time and cooperation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Design Conceptualization and Communication Group, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Building 32, Landbergstraat 15, 2628 CE, Delft, The Netherlands

    Abdullah Al Mahmud

  2. Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Yvonne Limpens & Jean-Bernard Martens

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  1. Abdullah Al Mahmud
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  2. Yvonne Limpens
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  3. Jean-Bernard Martens
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Correspondence to Abdullah Al Mahmud.

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Mahmud, A.A., Limpens, Y. & Martens, JB. Expressing through digital photographs: an assistive tool for persons with aphasia. Univ Access Inf Soc 12, 309–326 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-012-0286-8

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