Introduction

What is Pictalk?

Pictalk is a communication application using CAA pictograms that won the Handitech Trophy 2022 in the digital innovation category. It is copyright-free, free of charge, and ad-free. It runs on Android, iOS (Apple), and in web version.

We are a team of two telecommunications engineers and started developing Pictalk during our studies for our younger brother with a disability.

Pictalk allows vocal feedback through a synthetic voice and provides a pictogram search engine from ARASAAC, Sclera, Mulberry, and others. Importing images from your photo library is also possible.

The current version of Pictalk does not allow advanced use of CAA (conjugation, sentence structure, complete library) but may be sufficient for people with severe cognitive impairments or significant oral language difficulties. It is important to note that due to a lack of contributions from speech therapists or other language professionals, we have not been able to provide complete starting libraries designed to develop language. This is a goal for us.

Installation

The application is available on Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pictalk.www.twa&hl=fr&gl=US) and on iOS (https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/pictalk-aac/id1617860868). It is also possible to access the application simply through your web browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.) at this address: https://application.pictalk.org/public/346

To add your pictograms and customize your folder, you will need to create a free account. Once the application is installed, offline use is possible.

Video tutorials are available at this address https://www.pictalk.org/fr/pictalk/resources/

How to use?

First use

Once your account is created, you can log into your personal space. You can then explore your pictogram grid. You will notice that some elements have a black border. Indeed, there are two types of entities in Pictalk:

• Collections (similar to "folders"). They have a black border (like a shadow). A collection can contain pictograms as well as other collections.
• Pictograms (similar to "files").

 

By pressing on a collection, for example "food":

We are redirected to this page:

This is the inside of the "food" collection. Here, you will find pictograms related to this collection. Notably: hot, coffee, drink, eat… A bar at the bottom has appeared. It concerns the "Phrase bar".

To compose your own sentence and be able to verbalize it, let’s click on pictograms. Here, I clicked on "I", "Want", "Eat", "Fries".

Let's look at the buttons of the "Phrase bar":

1. The "Trash" button deletes the current sentence and takes you back to your home (initial screen)
2. The "Delete" button removes the last clicked pictogram and takes you back to your previous position
3. The "Volume" button in green allows you to read the sentence:
4. The "Copy" button in blue allows you to copy the sentence to the clipboard so it can be sent on WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, or elsewhere.

Create your content (essential!)

For any modification, you need to switch to "Edit mode". To protect your library from accidental deletions or modifications, it is necessary to answer a very simple arithmetic calculation:

After switching to edit mode, numbers will appear under each pictogram. This indicates the display priority.

The lowest numbers will appear at the top left of the screen, and the highest numbers (the 10) will appear at the end. We are currently working on a better solution (drag and drop) for organizing the pictograms.

By hovering over a pictogram or a collection, 3 vertical dots (in blue) and 12 rectangular dots (in red) appear.

In blue, the three dots allow you to access the "Pictogram actions":

1. Modify it (image, text, spoken discourse)
2. Delete it
3. Add it to the sidebar

In red, the 12 dots allow you to move the pictogram to a collection by performing a drag-and-drop gesture.

For a collection, here are the available actions:

(Thanks to Aurélie REGENT for this very clear description of the available copies) 

It is possible to make "linked copies" of collections to place them in another collection. For example, if we created a collection "educators" and want to copy it into the "school" collection, this is possible via the "linked duplicate" button and then "paste" in edit mode. If we then add a pictogram to the isolated "educators" collection, it is also automatically found in the "educators" collection within the "school" collection. This is the green chain symbol "Linked duplicates".

Conversely, a "Distinct copy" will not be updated if an educator is added or removed from the original collection.

Creating a collection

In edit mode, press the "Create +" button and select "Collection".

Pictalk includes a pictogram search engine that uses Sclera, ARASAAC, Mulberry, and Tawasol.

Once the pictogram is imported from your computer or found among the search engine suggestions, you will need to fill in the oral message "discourse" as well as the written "Meaning" and then give it a color. For a collection, it is possible to mute it.

Edit a pictogram or a collection

It is possible to modify the image of a pictogram or a collection from the "Options" menu. Here are the 4 editing options:

It is also possible to edit the "Discourse" and the "Meaning".

Sidebar

As in other CAA applications, it is possible to pin pictograms or collections in a sidebar. They will thus be highlighted and accessible at any time.

Settings

In this settings menu, it is possible to change:

1. The size of the interface and pictograms
2. The display time of the sentence
3. The editing protection by a simple calculation
4. The automatic pronunciation of the pictogram upon clicking

If you click on the "languages" symbol, you will find yourself on the second panel:

Here, it is possible to change the display language and the synthetic voice.

In the next tutorial, we will explore the sharing features for easier use in a structure.