Read more about the use of tablet technology in AAC and our projects, such as "ECHOES2" and "How was School today...?". You can read online or download a copy here

The Dundee AAC Group and the Straight Talking Group have made it into the news again. STV News at Six reports about our upcoming trip to ISAAC in Pittsburgh. Alongside a 1-hour presentation on "How was School today...?", the groups will present a number of research projects and personal stories around AAC. Find out more on our Facebook event page or directly at the conference website: http://isaac2012.org/.

Here a link to the complete STV News at Six from Wednesday, 25th July 2012. We are at about 8'40" into the programme.

Daniel Herron graduated this month with his Honours Project “How was School Today?” Goes Mobile. The Android App allows the recording of voice messages and photographs to support children with complex communicaiton needs to talk about their personal experiences. He developped the app in close collaboration with a special school to ensure that it meets the requirements of real school life. For a quick overview please take a look at his poster from the Honours project exhibition: Daniel Herron's Project Poster (PDF).

Find more information on our projects on our research group site: Dundee AAC Group.

We have been accepted for ISAAC 2012 in Pittsburgh: Please take a look at our abstract: Automatic Utterance Generation for Personal Narrative – System Development and Feasibility Experiences.

We will be presenting about several projects of our research group, please check our website for more information: Dundee AAC Group or like us on Facebook for the latest updates: Dundee AAC Group, How was School today...?

Take a look at the Guardian online: Technology that gives children a voice.

Spreading the word: During the Dundee Science Festival we presented our work in the Overgate, Dundee, speaking to more than 500 people...

We will present the latest results of the project.

You can download the abstract here: Rolf Black, Annalu Waller, Ehud Reiter and Nava Tintarev: How was School today...? – Using a mobile phone to support data collection for automatic narrative generation

We will be presenting at ASSETS 2011 in Dundee, 24-26 October 2011: "A Mobile Phone Based Personal Narrative System", Rolf Black, Annalu Waller, Nava Tintarev, Ehud Reiter and Joseph Reddington. Will we see you there?

How IT changes our Life - IT Trends for the Education of Tomorrow. Our latest research project "How was School today...?" has made it into the Microsoft (Germany) Trendbook "Future Education". Download the PDF here.

Talking About Experience - A practical workshop on using AAC equipment to support Personal Narrative. Following on from the Story Telling Study Day in 2009, this workshop will offer an opportunity for teachers, speech and language therapists, parents, family members and carers who work with children and adults who use AAC and/or learning disabilities to engage in the practicalities of using mid- and high-tech AAC devices to support the development and sharing of personal narratives. This event will include both traditional platform presentations and practical workshop sessions.

Second Workshop on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies (SLPAT). ACL EMNLP 2011 Workshop, 30 July 2011, Edinburgh, Scotland. This 1-day workshop will bring together researchers from all areas of speech and language technology with a common interest in making everyday life more accessible for people with physical, cognitive, sensory, emotional or developmental disabilities. This workshop will build on the first such workshop (co-located with NAACL HLT 2010); it will provide an opportunity for individuals from both research communities, and the individuals with whom they are working, to assist to share research findings, and to discuss present and future challenges and the potential for collaboration and progress.

We are working very closely with the Speech Pathology Departement (Logopedi, Department of Neuroscience) at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, and this year two of their Master students have written their thesis on our project. Please take a look at their thesis at this link.

We have been nominated as finalist in the BCS UK IT Industry Awards 2010 in the category “Community Project of the Year”: Please take a look at the list of finalists. (Press release)

We are going to present at RAatE (Recent Advances in Assistive Technology & Engineering). Please take a look at the conference website: RAatE 2010.

Fantastic news: Our colaborators won the TES award for: OUTSTANDING ICT LEARNING INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR! Congratulations! Please take a look at the TES website and a follow-on article in the TES Scotland Magazine.

We are going to present on the First Workshop on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies (SLPAT) in Los Angeles this June. Take a look at the NAACL HLT conference website: NAACL HLT 2010 and the workshop website: SLPAT 2010. You can download our abstract here here.

We will also deomonstrate our prototype on the day. You can find out more about this in our demonstration proposal.

We have been accepted at ISAAC this summer in Barcelona. Take a look at ISAAC's conference website: ISAAC 2010 and download our abstract and slides in Publications.

We have officially started our project. We are one of three projects that have been funded as part of the Digital Economy Programme.

More official info at the EPSRC website: "The Dundee part" and "the Aberdeen part".

Launched in 2008 the Bridge features more commissioned articles, original writing and focuses on the achievements of University alumni, staff and students. Read online or download the October issue with an article about our project on page 14.

We managed to secure funding for another 18 months! Our project proposal was accepted for the Digital Economy Call "Research in the Wild".

Explore the impact of the Digital Economy Programme research at www.impactworld.org.uk. (Find us in the archived projects.)

We also feature in the latest "Impact" newsletter: View the email on the web here or download the EPSRC pdf version)

We have been accepted with our talk about the latest results of the project.

You can download the abstract here: Rolf Black, Annalu Waller, Ehud Reiter and Ross Turner: "How was School Today…?", Evaluating the Personal-Narrative-Telling Prototype: Preliminary Results

Our project is featured in the EPSRC annual report. Quote: "The ‘Digital Economy’ encapsulates research and development that delivers novel design or use of technologies to help transform the lives of individuals [... and] may lead to many life-changing breakthroughs from projects such as: [...] - A computer tool incorporating GPS and barcode scanners to help children who cannot speak create a story about their day at school." (download an extract of the report here.

Capability's magazine Choice features an article about the project at their school. Quote from one of the participants: "It made me feel really good about myself and I would definitely like to use it again."

(download an extract from the issue here or the whole issue (pdf, 18MB) directly from Capability (Choice website)

A revolutionary software system which enables children with communication difficulties to take control of conversation has been unveiled at Capability’s Corsford School. Please download the press release here: Pioneering Scottish Technology Empowers Disabled Children (PDF) or take a look at the colaborators' pages: University of Dundee, Press Area, Capability Scotland, Press Area or University of Aberdeen, Media Releases

Some of the press coverage, including radio and television:

• BBC News: National coverage on Radio 2 and 3, Television: BBC 1, Reporting Scotland New software helps children speak (BBC News, Health: Video report shown throughout the day including the 10 o'clock news.), Software 'gives children a voice' (BBC News, News Frontpage)
• STV news at Six - Central edition (6pm):
  
  
  
  
• The Times: in print on Friday, 5 June 2009 and online: How was school today? Now disabled pupils can tell the story
• The Guardian: guardian.co.uk: Device offers hope to children with communication problems
• The Herald: in print on Friday, 5 June 2009, and online: Web Issue: Scientists’ new device gives gift of speech to children unable to talk
• The Press and Journal: System developed to help children communicate
• EPSRC, News and Events: New software gives children gift of speech

For more information please look at our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) or contact Dr Ehud Reiter (technical questions) and Dr Annalu Waller (assistive technology and disability issues).

As part of their NLG Platform Grant at the Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, we will be looking into a more long term use of our personal narrative telling prototype

We have been accepted with our paper on the project.

As part of this project there will be an AAC STUDY DAY in collaboration with Communication Matters and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in early 2009 titled:

”Guess What Happened Today!”
Enabling Children with Complex Communication Needs to Tell Stories

It is going to be a valuable study day on the role of story telling within language development, and how story telling can be encouraged and facilitated.

Presenters will be: Nicola Grove, Annalu Waller and Rolf Black.

The study day will be held on three days in different parts of the UK which should allow everyone interested to participate:

London, 27 Janurary 2009
Manchester, 28 January 2009
Edinburgh, 3 February 2009

We have been accepted with our talk about the project. Additionally there will be a workshop on personal narrative.

You can download the abstracts here: Annalu Waller, Rolf Black, Ehud Reiter and Ross Turner: Tell me your story – a story telling workshop and Rolf Black, Annalu Waller, Ehud Reiter and Ross Turner: Tell me about your day - Creating novel access to personal narrative