AphasiaWeb: a social network for individuals with aphasia

Abstract

With the rise of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, it might seem that our opportunity to communicate with others is limited only by our access to smart phones and computers. However, most social networks are not designed with complete accessibility in mind. In particular, these networks' chronological organization of news items, abundant feature sets, and busy presentation can make these tools unusable to individuals with aphasia, an acquired language disorder that compromises an individual's ability to speak, write, and recognize language. This is unfortunate, as one of the primary means of managing aphasia is to keep individuals in community. To counter this, we have developed AphasiaWeb, a social network designed exclusively for keeping individuals with aphasia and their friends and families connected. In this paper we describe the social network and share findings from a two-month trial program conducted with a local aphasia support group.