Abstract
There are many disabilities that affect a person's ability to speak. As such, alternatives to verbal communication are often sought. These alternatives are referred to as Augmented and Alternative Communication Systems (AACs). An AAC can be either high-tech or low/no-tech. While many AACs require a user to type out what they want spoken, there are also AACs that rely on symbols for communication. We introduced these topics to students using an assignment that asks students to create the backend for a symbol based AAC device. The device will have a symbol board where there is a page with categories (e.g. food, clothing), which when selected goes to another page with the different items. When an image is selected within the category, the relevant text is spoken aloud. The students are asked to write the relevant methods for the AAC such as determining what images to load and what is spoken aloud. This assignment was used in a data structures course to give students experience working with maps. This assignment is focused for students who are working in Java and comfortable with an object-oriented approach. The real-world context of using devices that are commonly used by people with disabilities that affect their speech was interesting to students. The assignment served as an introduction to certain disabilities and showed students the real-world use of technology to help people communicate.