Evaluation and Design of Alphabetic Communication Boards

Abstract

Communication boards provide a low-cost means of facilitating communication with patients who are unable to speak; however the process is slow and frustrating. A computer model was used to calculate the cumulative frequency-weighted path length for letter selection (“chart index”) for three conventional communication boards using different search strategies; and exhaustively generate and evaluate designs for a novel communication board based on a frequency-ordered arrangement of letters. For all arrangements, a 46% to 53% reduction in chart indices was achieved when “2 Dimensional” (2D) rather than “1 Dimensional” (1D) search strategies were employed. A further 23% to 30% reduction in chart indices was achieved through use of frequency-ordered sequences with optimal row groupings. Conventional communication boards can be used more efficiently by employing a 2D search strategy. Novel communication boards based on optimised arrangements of frequency-ordered letter sequences potentially provide a faster means of communication than conventional communication boards.