The apps are meant to be complementary of each other. Four years ago, AssistiveWare began looking into how people approach the OG Proloquo2go app in practical use what they discovered raised eyebrows and concern. In a nutshell, they found customers-mainly parents, speech & language pathologists, and AAC specialists-were taking an extremely powerful tool and effectively turning it into a toy. What originally was designed to be intelligent became a lot dumber. The crux of the issue is most people ignore AssistiveWare’s suggested settings the company recommends a grid of 77 buttons on a page, yet oftentimes users will reduce the size to show only 20. Niemeijer estimates over 80% of customers disregard the company’s suggestions, while another 40% opt for the considerably smaller grid of icons. Put another way, Niemeijer likened Proloquo to the iPhone: Powerful yet simple for everyone and impossible to screw up irreparably.
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#Proloquo research freeīy contrast, Proloquo2go is Android in this analogy: Whereas Apple’s philosophy is more conservative in nature, Google in comparison gives users much more free rein in terms of extensibility and modifying the operating system.
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The classic Exhibit A is the oft-cited cry from the nerd crowd that Apple limits the installation of third-party software to the App Store, but Android customers can sideload apps in addition to using the Play Store. For AssistiveWare’s part, Niemeijer and team feels the majority of folks are better off sticking to Proloquo unless, again, they have an insatiable desire-and the know-how-to customize and micromanage. The bottom line? Trust Niemeijer and team to guide you in the right direction. “In a way, all AAC apps, including our own, they're designed by experts,” he said. “And if you're an expert in the field, you can configure it the right way for this particular child or this adult. But most people don't have that background. They don't know what to do, they have not had the training in their university courses.”Ī common thread running through my conversation with Niemeijer was the underlying problem with reducing Proloquo2go’s functionality: doing so presumes incompetence. He explained that by limiting word choice to just a few options, the parent or caretaker is artificially capping a person’s ability to expand their vocabulary. They just need a tool to enable expression, which is why AssistiveWare’s findings were so alarming.Ĭognitively speaking, Niemeijer told me, many people using AAC devices actually have a lot to say if given the opportunity.
The essential lesson is people’s automatic presumption that disabled people, of all ilks, are somehow less than human-that they’re inferior in doing things like holding a coherent conversation. That ableist mindset, Niemeijer said, hearkens back to an era where people with disabilities were pushed aside, cast away to institutions because the prevailing wisdom was having a disability meant they were worthless to society and as an individual. Service providers working in educational or clinical settings should be realistic in their evaluations of the disabled people they serve, but so too should they err on the side of capableness.
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