Complete tutorial on Pictalk communication: our innovative free AAC application

What is Pictalk AAC communication?

Pictalk Communication is an AAC pictogram communication application that was the winner of the Handitech Trophy 2022 in the digital innovation category. It is royalty-free, free of charge, and ad-free. It works on Android, iOS (Apple), and in web version.

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

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

The current version of Pictalk communication does not allow advanced AAC usage (conjugation, sentence structure, complete library) but may be sufficient for people with severe cognitive impairments or major 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 starter 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 directly from your web browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc) at this address: https://application.pictalk.org/public?fatherCollectionId=346

To add your pictograms and customize your binder, 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 items have a black border. Indeed, two types of entities exist in Pictalk:

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

 

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

We are redirected to this page:

This is the inside of the "food" collection. Here, we find pictograms related to this collection. Notably: hot, coffee, drink, eat… A bar has appeared at the bottom. It is 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 on 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 plays the sentence:
4. The "Copy" button in blue allows you to copy the sentence to the clipboard so you can send it via WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, or other.

Create your content (essential!)

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

Following your switch to edit mode, numbers will appear under each pictogram. These indicate 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) to organize pictograms.

When hovering over a pictogram or a collection, 3 vertical dots (in blue) and 12 rectangle-shaped dots (in red) appear.

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

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

In red, the 12 dots allow moving the pictogram within a collection by making 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 you created a collection "educators" and want to copy it into the collection "school", this is possible via the "linked duplicate" button and then "paste" in edit mode. If you then add a pictogram into the isolated collection "educators", it will also automatically appear in the "educators" collection inside the "school" collection. This is indicated by the green chain symbol "Linked duplicates".

On the contrary, a "Separate 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 search engine for pictograms 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 provide the oral message "speech" as well as the written "Meaning" and then assign it a color. For a collection, it is possible to mute it.

Editing 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 possibilities:

It is also possible to modify the "Speech" and the "Meaning".

Sidebar

As in other AAC 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 via a simple addition
4. The automatic pronunciation of the pictogram when clicked

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 of Pictalk communication in a professional use context.