Note: Therapy Box is based in the United Kingdom (UK)
Therapy Box was created when co-founders Rebecca Bright MBE, a speech and language therapist, and Swapnil Gadgil, a telecoms expert, wanted to create an app to help people with MND (motor neuron disease) communicate more easily. Since then, Therapy Box has grown as a full stack technology company with a focus on healthcare and education, specifically within the realm of speech and language. As well as developing our own AAC apps, we’ve worked alongside NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on international projects. For example, in 2019 we worked with UNICEF to provide accessible and accurate information about menstrual health to young girls in Mongolia and Indonesia. We’re also leading a large NIHR i4i funded collaborative project called Language Explorer to develop and evaluate a clinical decision making tool for speech and language therapists using an automated transcription of language samples elicited using a child-friendly story retell app, which will provide clinicians with in-depth analysis of the linguistic and acoustic features of the child’s language sample. You can find out much more information on our website!
Our first and foremost app is Predictable, a text-to-speech AAC app designed for literate people with reduced speaking abilities. We’ve tried to make the design of Predictable as intuitive as possible, and are always looking for ways to improve it. There’s easy access to a phrase bank, which can be organised by categories, as well as a wide range of access methods and accessibility features. As well as direct touch, Predictable can also be accessed via scanning, either with a switch or by tapping anywhere on the screen. We’ve also implemented head tracking and gesture recognition, and most recently, Predictable can be accessed directly through eye tracking!
We’ve also developed a number of other AAC apps. ChatAble is a symbol based AAC app in which the user can create their own grids of symbols to use to communicate. Scene&Heard is a scene-based AAC app in which the user can create scenes using either their own or pre-made photos. ‘Hot spots’ can then be placed on the scene which can be programmed to speak or play multimedia on tap to aid communication. Scenes can also be linked together to create a map of the user’s life and things they might need to say.
As well as providing ongoing support for all of our apps, we also offer free online training sessions about our apps for clinicians, speech and language professionals, or AAC teams so that they can best support their clients. We also offer free trials of our apps to both users and clinicians so that they can see if the app will best suit their needs. We can also offer advice regarding which AAC solution could be suitable, as well as pointing towards relevant retailers.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us for any reason at all, from a specific question about one of our apps to general AAC or Speech and Language queries. We’re always looking for feedback, so if you have a feature request, a bug report, or a good idea, we’d love to hear about it! Here’s how:
Thank you Therapy Box for contributing a post to the NWACS blog! You can view our summary page for this company in our AAC/AT Companies resource. Explore our full collection.
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