The Design

My topic isn't a very humorous one. Speech disabilities are certainly a serious problem because the affect a basic human necessity: communication. I think I might start serious to make the audience understand that. However, since I'm making a device that helps solve the problem, I want the major tone of my presentation to be more hopeful than serious. Because I'm planning on making my app basic and simple, I'm basing it mostly on SGD's that are used primarily for children. For this reason, I want to use bright color schemes and cartoon-like graphics. I haven't worked out all the details yet, but I think the project is definitely moving forward. Yup.

The Idea!

A basic speech generating device

Our capstone project has to solve a current problem related to our major. Since I'm majoring in speech-language pathology, I decided to do mine on speech generating devices (SGDs). An SGD is basically and electronic device that has words represented by icons. When someone touches the icon, the device says the word out loud. Some people with speech disabilities use this to communicate. The problem is, many SGDs are very expensive, especially if you don't have insurance. They can also be very bulky, heavy, and complicated to use. This is an important problem because these issues limit how some people can communicate with others. Everybody deserves to be able to voice their own thoughts and opinions. People that rely on SGDs have trouble using the complicated device, and that's if they're able to acquire one in the first place. Introducing the solution: a smart phone app! My end product is an app that works just like an SGD, but can be used on smart phones or tablets like the iPad.
Ta-daa!!!