Poster for Tawasol Symbols describing vocabulary and symbol processes for collection and development.

1. Linguistic and Cultural Challenges for a Bilingual AAC
environment in the Arab region.
Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) can help
those with a range of speech and language difficulties by
providing alternative means of communication, such as the
use of symbols to convey a message (Light & McNaughton,
2012) and enhance their quality of life (Hill, 2012). However,
there have been some challenges in achieving this in the Arab
region due to the lack of Arabic symbol inventories and the
reliance on Westernised symbols (Hock & Lafi, 2011). As a
result, uptake and the positive outcomes of using AAC have
been limited. Tawasol symbols aim to bridge the gap with a
freely available symbol collection that is culturally,
environmentally, religiously and linguistically appropriate
for the Arab AAC community. A participatory approach has
been taken offering AAC users, teachers, therapists and
parents the chance to collaborate in the design and
development of all aspects of the project (Draffan et al 2015).
Introduction
E.A. Draffan1, M. Wald 1, A.I. Ahmad² , A. Kadous², N. Zeinoun3 , D. Banes, O.Sabia & D. Lawand
¹ University of Southampton (UK) Email: ead@ecs.soton.ac.uk , mw@ecs.soton.ac.uk
² Hamad Medical Corporation (Qatar) Speech Therapy Dep. Email: aahmad2@hamad.qa , tullahk@hotmail.com
³ Mada (Qatar Assistive Technology Center) Email: nzeinoun@mada.org.qaLogo for Tawasol Symbols
Symbols with thanks to ARASAAC http://arasaac.org/ & Tawasol http://tawasolsymbols.org/
As the AAC forum became more engaged so the data collected
increased and comments relating to the symbols became more
critical in particular where there were clothing types and body
representations plus religious connections. Some voters felt
very strongly about having Qatari clothing only and others felt
that general Arabic dress was important in capturing the wider
Arab population. It was decided that the dictionary would offer
both options to suit the broadest range of Arabic AAC users with
Modern Standard Arabic word lists supplemented by Qatari
words for conversation as Arabic is a diglossic language.
Morphosyntactic differences also impact on AAC
communication board / chart layout with right to left orientation
and different degree of representation of the various parts of
speech. The participatory contribution of the AAC forum to this
project has proved essential with early publication of results.
Draffan, E. A., Kadous, A., Idris, A., Banes, D., Zeinoun, N., Wald, M., & Halabi, N. (2015). A Participatory
Research Approach to develop an Arabic Symbol Dictionary. Studies in health technology and informatics,
217, 796-804.
Hill, K. (2010). Advances in augmentative and alternative communication as quality-of-life technology.
Physical medicine and rehabilitation clinics of North America, 21(1), 43-58.
Hock, B. S. &Lafi, S., M. (2011). Assistive Communication Technologies for Augmentative Communication in
Arab Countries: Research Issues. UNITAR e-Journal, 7(1), 57-66.
Light, J., & McNaughton, D. (2012). Supporting the communication, language, and literacy development of
children with complex communication needs: State of the science and future research priorities. Assistive
Technology, 24(1), 34-44.
References
Conclusion
Initial symbol voting resulted in only 3.4% of the chosen
ARASAAC symbols being marked by Arabic voters as having
'good' cultural sensitivity for their environment. As new symbols
were created the symbols' cultural acceptability increased to an
average score of 4.14 out of 5. Voting continued at 6 monthly
intervals with increasingly constructive comments and
maintenance of acceptance levels (4.03 out of 5). A set of
criteria were developed to aid future symbol designs. Initial
word lists collected increased over 18 months from 609 Arabic
AAC words to over 1,500. Comparison of Arabic AAC to English
55% - 27% nouns but 29% English verbs compared to 16% in
Arabic and pronouns (8% -2%). Impacts on correct symbol
positioning on charts to encourage literacy skills.
Funded by an NPRP award [NPRP 6 - 1046 -
2 - 427] from the Qatar National Research
Fund (a member of The Qatar Foundation)
AAC Forum voters selected a freely available symbol set to suit
those already in use. A voting system was created for symbol
acceptance. Comments were used to build criteria for future symbol
creation. Word lists were collected in Qatar and compared to Arabic
lists for literacy and language. Frequency of use and parts of
speech were compared to English AAC lists to create AAC charts
Method
Results
Criteria for Designing Culturally
Appropriate Symbols - Arabic
Symbol Creation Process
Vocabulary Collection Process
• Consider culture & religion
• Include religious holidays, customs, local landmarks
& food
• Use local currency
• Less greenery in the environment
• Darker physical features
• Facial hair for adult males
• Limit mixing and show of affection with opposite sex
• Consider culture and religion
• Include religious holidays, customs, local landmarks
and food
• Use local currency
• Less greenery in the environment
• Flip symbols to follow Arabic sentence orientation
• Male and female versions for each symbol
• Differentiate dual and plural symbols
• Qatari females: Abaya and Shela (all hair covered)
• Qatari males: Thobe and Ghutra
• General Arab dress code: Hijab and modest clothing