Non-speaking people often rely on AAC (Augmentative and Alternative
Communication)
devices to assist them to communicate. These AAC devices are slow to operate,
however, and
as a result conversations can be very difficult and frequently break down.
This is especially
the case when the conversation partner is unfamiliar with this method of
communication, and
is a big obstacle to many people when they wish to conduct simple everyday
transactions. A
way of improving the performance of AAC devices by using scripts is discussed.
A prototype
system to test this idea was constructed, and a preliminary experiment
performed with
promising results. A practical AAC device which incorporates scripts was
then developed,
and is described.