What's new at Deal

i-COOL COMMUNICATION
The Proloquo 2 Go:
AAC at the iStore

WARNING – most of this article is based on the Proloquo2Go web site. As with any communication aid, it’s important to try before you buy!

One of the problems with technology for people with disability is that it has to contend with Moore's Law. Moore's law is, roughly, that the power of computers doubles every two years. This means that people who produce equipment specifically designed for people with disabilities must expect that by the time they get through the process of design and production they're going to have to compete with PCs that have twice the capacity of the ones they were looking at when they started. By the time the equipment has been marketed and debugged (in that order - small manufacturer's simply can't do the amount of testing necessary to release perfect products), not to mention prescribed and trained with, the general purpose computer will have made still more strides.

The latest demonstration of the speed of advance of general purpose computing is an AAC program designed for use with the iPhone or iPod Touch.

According to the manufacturers, Proloquo2Go™ is a new product from AssistiveWare that provides a full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking. It brings natural sounding text-to-speech voices, up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary of over 7000 items, full expandability and ease of use to the iPhone and iPod touch.

Its obvious selling point is price. iPhones are not cheap, but they're a lot cheaper than most dedicated AAC devices, which can run over $Aus10,000 for aids which combine dynamic screens with the ability to speak what the user types. The software, too, is not expensive (for this field). The company's press release stresses the cost advantage:

AssistiveWare today announced the release of Proloquo2Go for iPhone and iPod touch. Proloquo2Go is the first full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking not costing thousands of dollars. Finally, powerful augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) comes within reach of consumers and schools without access to funding. Never before was using a communication device so portable and so cool as with Proloquo2Go and the iPhone or iPod touch. Proloquo2Go is a true break-through in price and technology, bringing natural sounding text-to-speech voices, up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary of over 7000 items, full expandability and extreme ease of use to the iPhone and iPod touch.

Proloquo2Go is a perfect solution for anyone who cannot afford spending thousands of dollars on an Augmentative and Alternative Communication device and yet wants a solution that in terms of sheer communication power and ease of use rivals solutions typically priced over 10 times as high. It is also perfect for teenagers and young adults who want a device as cool as the iPhone or iPod touch. Not to mention, this a great solution for children and adults with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, developmental disabilities, or apraxia. Proloquo2Go can also serve adults with acquired disabilities such as ALS, stroke or traumatic brain injury. It can be a useful solution in hospital and rehabilitation settings.

"The price is so compelling," said Dan Herlihy, owner of Connective Technology Solutions, "and the software and hardware platform Proloquo2Go runs on so radically improved over current devices in its category that if not quite a paradigm shift, markedly raises the bar for accessibility, ease of use, and affordability."

"When we set out to design Proloquo2Go we knew we wanted to provide the kind of power typically only found in desktop applications," said David Niemeijer, AssistiveWare's CEO. "The iPhone has allowed us to do just that, develop a full-featured, fully customizable communication solution that fits right in your pocket."

For more information, screen shots, tutorials and videos visit the product site www.proloquo2go.com

Yes, the bar has been raised - if only on cost. We should welcome this new and fierce competitor to the AAC equipment scene.

As with any AAC device it’s important not to buy before you try. Many potential users will not be able to handle the small buttons and will find the changing screens hard to navigate.
But this is about to change. On January 29th 2010 Assistiveware said that
On Wednesday, January 27th, Apple announced the iPad, a device with a 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen multi-touch display. Proloquo2Go, along with most of the 140,000 iPhone apps will run on the iPad. Current Proloquo2Go users will be able to download Proloquo2Go to the iPad once the iPad ships at the end of March.

Now PL2Go will really take on the big boys.

Chris Borthwick
February 1, 2010