Do-It-Yourself AAC: Co-Designing User-Programmable AI Communication Tools with People with Aphasia

Aphasia, which is a language disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate, can present profound challenges in one’s daily life. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) technology can support people with aphasia (PWA) in navigating such challenges, but is often difficult to customize and can overlook personal communication needs. End-user programming, which allows a user to develop and use their own custom programs, presents a promising solution where PWA can create their own personalized solutions. With recent research highlighting how generative AI can be helpful for AAC users, we propose a visual user-programming method that enables PWA to combine multiple AI functions to create personalized communication tools. We conducted semi-structured interviews and co-design workshops with eight participants with aphasia to understand how user-programmed AI systems can address personal communication needs. We present PWA’s perspectives on user-programmable communication tools and discuss the accessibility of visual programming methods for creating aphasia-friendly AI systems.