Suzanne Prior, Heike Betzler, Annalu Waller University of Dundee

Suzanne Prior, Heike Betzler, Annalu Waller
University of Dundee

Introduction
• MSc Project in Summer 2010
• Used as part of a PhD Project
• “The Creation of Guidelines for the Involvement of
Adults with CCN in User Centred Design”
• HB has undergraduate degree inEconomics and
International Business and studying for MSc in
Computing.

Initial Project Brief
• Previous projects have shown adults with CCN enjoy
sharing stories.
• HB was to develop software to support them in some
way with this.

Complex Communication Needs (CCN)
• Legal Definition “Unable to
meet communication needs”
due to:
• Limited or no speech AND
• Physical / Intellectual /
Medical needs
E.g. Cerebral Palsy,
Developmental Delay
• Also, Acquired
Communication Impairment,
e.g. stroke, Parkinson’s disease
• Exact numbers not known
• 600,000 in UK not able to
communicate yes/no
Aldous J. What worked for us. The Times. 2008 February 12, 2008.

Stories
• Communication is an
essential part of life
• An important part of
communication is the
ability to tell stories.
• These stories can include
• every day events up to
momentous life occasions.
• Through stories people
• build relationships
• learn new information
• can argue their point of
view.

Stories Are Learnt Early On
• We learn to be good story tellers from early in life……….

Stories and CCN
• However, people with
complex communication
needs (CCN) cannot access
their stories easily.
• voice output
communication aids are
not suited to sharing stories
• it is difficult to
• create a story,
• store it,
• retrieve it and
• narrate it

Stories and CCN
• People with CCN often
rely upon a carer to enter
stories into the device
• Time consuming and
results in static,
monologue output
• Story text tends to be
stored under a single key.
Today at the care centre I
had lentil soup for lunch,
in the morning I had
speech physio and then in
the afternoon I went to the
art group.

Speaking Photo albums
• Another way of sharing
stories is through
photographs
• Some use being made of
“speaking photograph
albums”;
• allowing voice recordings
to be linked to individual
photographs.
• Still relies on speaking
helpers
• Playback still mimics a
monologue.

Talking Photograph Album
• The problems were addressed within a participatory
design project
• The project followed participatory design guidelines
being developed at the School of Computing at the
University of Dundee (Prior 2010).
• Six adults with CCN and a support worker were
enabled to participate in all stages of the design using
innovative design methods

Level of Involvement
• The participants helped design the software from low
level paper based designs through to a fully working
piece of software.

Design Methods
• Design methods included:
• Magnetic White Boards
• E-Tran Boards
• PowerPoint Designs

Results of Product
• It has been possible to design the software so that the
users can be aided in creating much of the photograph
linked story independently

Results of Methods
• The adults with CCN
• greatly enjoyed taking part in the developing a system
for themselves
• were able to contribute fully as participants
• Provided further evidence that adults with a wide
variety of intellectual and physical impairments can
take a meaningful role in participatory design
• when they are given appropriate support
• where careful consideration is put into the planning of
the design process to facilitate interaction.

My Photo Album
Heike Betzler

Where was this picture taken?
the garden outside the library in Perth Scotland

When was this picture taken?
in 2003 when I was in my last year of school

Who was with you?
my friends Jenni and Rachel

What would you like to say about the photo?
when we studying after School

How was it, how did it make you feel?
This was usually good fun

Where was this picture taken?
Brussels

When was this picture taken?
2 years ago in the summer.

Who was with you?
my parents

What would you like to say about the photo?
looking at the sunset

How was it, how did it make you feel?
I didn't like the food.

EXIT

EXIT