The design of ViVA: a mixed-initiative visual vocabulary for aphasia

In this paper, we present the design of ViVA, a visual vocabulary for aphasia. Aphasia is an acquired language disorder that causes variability of impairments affecting individual's ability to speak, comprehend, read and write. Existing communication aids lack flexibility and adequate customization functionality failing to address this variability and to satisfy individual user needs. We tackle these shortcomings by incorporating adaptive and adaptable capabilities in ViVA which is designed to assist communication for users suffering from aphasia. The visual vocabulary for aphasia implements a novel approach that organizes the words in the vocabulary according to user preferences, word usage and certain semantic measures, thus continuously tailoring the tool to the user's profile.