'What Does Access To AAC For Irish Mean To You?' Geabaire, The First Symbols-Based AAC Application For The Irish Language: Preliminary Findings From An Evaluation Study
Keywords:
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), Irish, inclusion, Autism, language rightsAbstract
Geabaire is the first symbols-based AAC app for the Irish language. Users select a series of words that are concatenated into a sentence and spoken by ABAIR synthetic voices. Geabaire has been designed to reflect the linguistic structures of Irish and contains a broad, localised vocabulary that empowers those who cannot rely on speech to communicate their thoughts and needs and engage with the curricula, their family, community, and peers. The target users are autistic students in Irish medium education, but it is hoped that Geabaire will benefit a broader range of users. This paper discusses the design and development of Geabaire and preliminary findings from semi-structured interviews with teachers, parents, speech and language therapists, and an AAC user. It focuses on participants’ reflections on what AAC for Irish means to them. Findings indicate that AAC for Irish is necessary to facilitate equal access to linguistic and cultural identity and allow users to participate in their communicative environments.
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