More Choices - AAC Symbols as Sets and Collections

Localisation, personalisation, and customisation are concepts that are immensely important in the world of AAC, but tend to be used more often when talking about technology, design and marketing. It is hard to always get localisation right when trying to meet the linguistic, cultural, and regional needs of every individual AAC user. However, personalisation can help provide further tailoring of symbol content to suit user preferences that can potentially be done automatically by using AI.

Customisation, (unlike personalisation) gives users direct control to make changes. This may involve choosing different background settings or adding additional elements such as arrows etc. Building Symbol Creator AI to incorporate these three concepts is an exciting challenge as is the generation of new symbol sets and collections.

Having published the PiCom AI Realistic Symbols, that are almost photographic, we have added a cartoon version of the same symbols to offer other options.

The recently created PiCom AI High Contrast Symbols provide a range of different pictographs for those with visual impairments. You will find images with enhanced visual clarity, neon colours and black backgrounds.

Finding symbols on the repository as templates for symbol development using the present Symbol Creator AI.

1. Access the Symbol Sets or Collections: Register on Global Symbols website.
2. Select a Symbol Style: Choose a target symbol in the style and as near to your ideas /referent or symbol label that you want to create.
3. Download the Symbol: At the moment it is necessary to download onto a personal device
4. Use Symbol Creator AI: Check the login button has your name, then upload the chosen symbol and write a short text description of what is needed such as 'A child eating rice' - choosing the Jellow style symbol set.
5. Customise and Contribute: Refine your symbol such as remove background then adapt by using Board Builder tools. Download or save to your own Global Symbols image repository. Later we hope you will share boards and symbols when we have safety features in place.

Looking Ahead

This update is just the beginning. We plan to expand the AI symbol sets and collections with more styles and categories, ensuring the Global Symbols repository remains a dynamic resource for inclusive communication. We really hope you will give us feedback to help shape future updates.

Thanks to Microsoft Accessibility Innovation Grant Funding