Afasie Gespreksboek, van papier naar app [Aphasia Gespreksboek from paper to app]

In the Netherlands, more and more apps are being developed for people with communicative disabilities which seek to support the clinical diagnosis and treatment of communicative disabilities or aim to optimise their functional communication skills. Although apps for communicatively disabled users perfectly fit into the digital era, they should meet the criteria of proven usability, as holds for each and every intervention and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) aid. Usability refers to the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which the intended users can achieve their tasks in the intended context of product use. In this article, we will focus on the Gespreksboek app. This digital AAC aid for people with aphasia is a kind of dictionary from which the user may select words and phrases in order to compose a message. It was developed in analogy with the paper version of the Gespreksboek (Verschaeve et al., 1992) and is primarily intended for people with aphasia who are hardly able to speak and write, but can read fairly well. As a precursor to a more comprehensive usability test, this current feasibility study serves as a first indication of its value for people with aphasia. A case study (N = 1) into the effect of the app on functional communication (i.e., (non)verbal effectiveness and efficiency)) was conducted. Moreover, user satisfaction was investigated in 28 users with aphasia or their representatives. The positive results obtained in this study suggest that it is reasonable to conduct a larger study into the usability of the Gespreksboek app. In this article, we also present a preliminary overview of the linguistic and non-linguistic prerequisites that seem to underlie an effectively and efficiently use of the app. With such a user profile, speech and language therapists can advise their patients on using the app. © University of Groningen Press.