The App
Falaê® is an Android application developed by HP volunteers from Brazil R&D in partnership with the NGO Educandário – Centro de Reabilitação São João Batista. It is an Alternative Communication app, that allows people with speech and mobility impairments to communicate by using pictograms (images or symbols) that represent words (verbs, nouns, adjectives etc).
The main goal of this project is to make the app completely free and unlimited. Up to now, all of the Alternative Communication apps known by the NGO are paid and have limited functionalities. This is a barrier to low-income families. We wish to enable everyone, regardless of their income, to use this resource and overcome their difficulties.
Falaê® consists of two parts: Android app and the web platform. The web page is used for user registering. Once registered, the user can customize their profile, as well as create and modify communication boards, pages and items. The Android app connects to the web platform in order to synchronize user data. With the use of an Android device (tablet or smartphone), people with speech and mobility impairments can start a literacy and communication process away of any charges. To download and install the application, please access the Google Play Store.
Another advantage of Falaê® is its open source nature. Falaê® is licensed under MIT, that is, anyone can freely download and/or modify the code to best fit their needs, as well as contribute to the open source community.
The pictographic symbols used are property of CATEDU (http://catedu.es/arasaac/) under the Creative Commons license and created by Sergio Palao.
About the NGO Educandário - Centro de Reabilitação São João Batista
The NGO whose work has inspired us was founded in 1939 to provide care for children with poliomyelitis. Today the NGO serves children and teenagers with multiple disabilities. Its mission is “to promote the rehabilitation and social integration of children and teenagers with disabilities, providing them with adequate treatment and education, aiming a better quality of life and empowering them as citizens”.
It is an institution where children and teens have several specific classes and health treatments according to their needs entirely for free. The institution is pioneer in using Alternative Communication methods for literacy and education, promoting a distinguished opportunity for those who can't speak to learn and express themselves.
Partners
In order to make the application available for free, we partnered with Devopers, a company specialized in providing cloud hosting solutions, which enabled the entire web infrastructure free of charge.
The visual identity of the application was developed by Crialab, the Laboratory of Creativity of TECNOPUC.
