TITLE:		AN AUGMENTATIVE COMMUNICATION INTERFACE
		BASED ON CONVERSATIONAL SCHEMATA
AUTHORS:	Peter B. Vanderheyden
COMMENTS:	From the Proceedings of the Workshop on Developing AI
		Applications for Disabled People (IJCAI '95)
KEYWORDS: 	augmentative communication, natural language processing,
		schemata, scripts

ABSTRACT:
Many people with severe speech and motor impairments make use of
augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. These
systems can employ a variety of techniques to organize stored words,
phrases, and sentences, and to make them available to the user. It is
argued in this paper that an AAC system should make better use of the
regularities in an individual's conversational experiences and the
expectations that an individual normally brings into a conversational
context.

An interface and methodology are proposed for organizing and
retrieving sentences appropriate to a particular conversation context,
possibly developed from earlier conversations. These conversations are
represented according to the schema structures discussed by Schank
(1982) as a model for memory and cognitive organization. The interface
allows the user to proceed with minimal effort through conversations
that follow the schema closely, and facilitates the derivation of new
schemata when a conversation diverges from an earlier one. This
interface is intended to operate in parallel with and to complement a
user's existing electronic communication system. Investigations to
consider the effectiveness of the interface and methodology are
planned for the future.