When David Niemeijer, then researcher at Wageningen University, set out to help a friend who’d been paralyzed after a car accident, he had no idea he would come to help thousands of people with disabilities.
Today, Niemeijer co-owns a company focused on enabling computer access for people with disabilities and developing computer software to support communication for people with disabilities. Seventeen years after his friend was injured, Niemeijer and his team have developed numerous solutions including the AAC app Proloquo2Go.
We asked him about the company and about this app, which makes our 2012 Apps of Distinction list.
Why Did You Found AssistiveWare and Develop Proloquo2Go?
David Niemeijer: My friend Giesbert had a serious car accident in 1995 and broke his neck. I developed KeyStrokes, an on-screen keyboard for the Mac, so that Giesbert could type using a HeadMouse. That led to the founding of AssistiveWare in 2000.
I have developed software for Mac OS X to provide computer access for people with physical impairments (KeyStrokes and SwitchXS) and vision impairments (VisioVoice), along with solutions for speech impairments (Proloquo) and reading difficulties (GhostReader).
In 2003 I was approached by a French organization that was looking for a communication solution for Mac OS X for their clients. At that time, Elan Speech, a French company that later joined forces with several other companies to form Acapela Group had just made a version of their text to speech that worked on a Mac. I integrated it into our KeyStrokes on-screen keyboard, just in time for a technology demonstration at Apple Expo in Paris in September. It was well received and during 2004 I worked on creating what became Proloquo, a multilingual augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) solution for Mac OS X. (“Proloquo” means “speak out loud” in Latin.)
When Apple came out with the iPhone many people asked us to make something like our Proloquo available for iPhone. We started from scratch in order to build something optimized for the way users interact with devices such as iPhone and iPad. Given the mobile platform we dubbed our AAC app, Proloquo2Go, to differentiate it from the computer-based Proloquo.
What does the Proloquo2Go app do?
David Niemeijer: Proloquo2Go provides a full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking. For those who cannot read it provides symbol-based communication using the SymbolStix symbols. For literate users it also supports a typing view with advanced self-learning word prediction. Using text-to-speech voices, users can use Proloquo2Go to say anything they want.
It is different from traditional AAC solutions in that it runs on Apple’s iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) rather than on a dedicated device. In terms of functionality and concepts, it has many similarities to those solutions. Compared to other iOS apps, it is one of the most powerful and advanced solutions available. I won’t say it is the best solution as what is best really depends on the needs of the particular user. However, Proloquo2Go has been designed to be extremely flexible so can be adapted to many different users and our user base consists of a wide variety of diagnoses and ages from 2-year-olds up to people in their 90s.
About 50 percent of our user base is on the autism spectrum. Many children and adults diagnosed with autism take extremely well to Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. We hear on a daily basis that providing the ability to communicate and express needs, wants, feelings, etc. also reduces behavioral issues making the impact of Proloquo2Go (or AAC in general) huge for people diagnosed with autism, as well as their families and school environment.
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Editor’s note: AssistiveWare recently started a video project documenting some of the success stories. You can view Proloquo2Go videos here: http://www.proloquo2go.com/Users/article/proloquo2go-video-project
For an overview of all of AssistiveWare’s products, please see: http://www.assistiveware.com/products.php
Wynsum Arts’ mission is supported through the purchase of apps from i.AM Search – available in iTunes. That’s how we can do what we do for free! Amazing awaits.
