Evaluating the Effects of a Virtual Communication Environment for People with Aphasia

Richard TalbotSpeech and Language Therapist|Researcher

The Project

• 3 year project funded by the stroke association• Jointly run between HCID and LCS• Investigating the benefits and use of a virtual

world for people with aphasia• Will it benefit language?• Will it benefit patients wellbeing?• How will participants feel about and use the

technology?

EVA Park• An enclosed virtual 3D island for people with aphasia (uses

Open Sim)• Developed through participatory design involving

consultants who have aphasia• Contains distinct regions, e.g.:– Houses– A Cafe– A Tropical Bar– A Versatile Counter (e.g. for booking a holiday)– A Health Centre– A Hair Dressers

What happens in EVA Park?• Participants represented by avatars• Also populated by communication support workers who are

qualified SLTs running a conversation therapy program• Communication is speech based, with optional text

support, and minimal gesture• Open for 4 ‘live periods’ (2013 – 2015)• Each live period is 5 weeks and will involve 5 participants• Participants will be paired with the support (key) workers• Of course participants can interact with anyone in-world

What happens in EVA Park?• Focus on social uses of language• Functional communication activities, e.g.:

– Order coffee– Get a haircut– Instruct a plumber– Book a holiday

• Opportunities for fun– Night club– Yacht– Fantastical

• Election narrative

Fun Day

Coffee group

How will we evaluate EVA Park?• Conversation• Word retrieval• Narrative• Functional Communication• Social Isolation• Social Network Analysis• Confidence communicating• HCI Observation and analysis• Participant and carer interviews

The Project

• 5 weeks access to the virtual world• Testing at 3 time points

Group 1:

Language

tests

Practice in the virtual world

Language

tests

Rest

Language

tests

5 weeks 5 weeks

Group 2:

Language

tests

Rest

Language

tests

Practice in the virtual world

Language

tests

5 weeks 5 weeks

What next?

• Have so far met with 31 people with aphasia. 11 are suitable to take part.

• 1st tranche complete • 2nd tranche currently ‘live’ (T1 and T2

complete)• Still recruiting! Participants must be within 1.5

hours travel from the university

The future

• At the end of the project, we hope to demonstrate the positive effects of EVA park for both language and social isolation.

• If we can, we hope this will enable funding to make EVA park openly available for people with aphasia.

www.soi.city.ac.uk/eva/