Proloquo2Go: Assistive Communication for the iPhone and iPod Touch

As an avid user of technology, I was really excited when I learned about the Proloquo2Go because this could revolutionize how I could communicate on the phone. As someone who has a stutter that has gets intensified when speaking on the phone so it was almost impossible for me to be successful on a phone interview for a job, making a doctor’s appointment or something as simple as calling to order a pizza.

The Proloquo2Go is great because it has full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking. It brings natural sounding text-to-speech voices, up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, default vocabulary of over 7000 items, full expandability, and extreme ease of use to the iPhone and iPod touch and now the iPad

As someone on the go constantly, the app for the iPhone was a perfect solution to all of communication challenges when speaking on the phone. Especially since according to the AAC institute an estimated 2.5 million Americans experience speech disability to the extent that they have significant difficulty being understood by others. Many of these people have no speech at all and also have other physical disability that precludes expressive communication using hand signs, writing, or typing.

With that being said Proloquo2Go has been helping individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, developmental disabilities, ALS, traumatic brain injury, aphasia, and more.

This device is simple to use because it uses all of capabilities of the Apple Products as well as allowing full customization of the application.

Another reason why this product is so great is because it is much cheaper and a lot more portable than most AAC devices. On average an AAC device costs at least $1,000 and you have to buy many upgrades, not to mention the sheer bulkiness and lack of customization. Sadly this Proloquo2Go is not covered by insurance or Medicare. But the good news is with the iPhone or iPod touch and the application it is less than 650 dollars, which is far more affordable then most AAC devices.

Making a phone call with Proloquo2Go is simple; make sure the speaker is on high, start the call, put the call on speaker, launch the application and your good to go. It is suggested that you should hold your phone such that it bounces off the speaker sound of your body, a table, or whatever is around.

How well your communication partner at the other end of the line understands you is affected by how you hold your phone. If you just hold it in mid-air the voice will not be heard that clearly, but if you bounce it off something like your body by holding the phone in front of you at a slight angle it works pretty well. Also, sometimes in a noisy environment it is difficult to hear but that is true with any cellular device.

Some of my favorite features on the application are that it supports both picture and just text based communication. You can type full paragraphs and the voices sound like a real human, not a robot, which makes it very easy to communicate with people who are not used to dealing with AAC devices.

Last but not least the application can be used in gaming specifically MMO’s like WoW. This is perfect for when communicating with someone in a game via a Bluetooth headset.