Auditory First

AAC for Auditory and Physically impaired first. Other solutions exist for other purposes. pasco is not a tool to meet all needs

Flexible and powerful configuration

Need a cue in one language and main voice in another? Need recorded sounds and voices for the cue and different ones for the main? Need next letter word prediction? pasco has you covered for features not available elsewhere

Here to help

pasco is being developed in the open. Want changes? Ask for them? Worried about obsolence? Pasco is here for good. Need some help right now that our documentation cant answer? Need a new feature? Please get in touch

COMPATIBILITY NOTE pasco is working best on iOS right now. Other platforms to follow.

It takes significant resources to maintain and advance pasco. If you'd like to help keep pasco active and open-source please consider supporting it through one of the methods below.

Financial Support

Our development and research all cost money. If you can spare the cash, we have a few ways to help us keep the lights on.

Memberships

We accept memberships through our Patreon account. These monthly donations are the ideal financial contribution since they're a bit more dependable and we can roughly predict the monthly amount. (not yet released)

One-Time Donations

Please donate to us via JustGiving. Small or large donations welcome!

Pull Requests

Whether squashing bugs, optimizing the codebase, increasing test coverage, or adding new features, submitting pull-requests through GitHub is extremely valuable.

Learn more about Contributing

Docs

No technical skills? Not enough time for a pull-request? No problem! We have plenty of user guides and documentation that could use some extra attention. Fix spelling, add code examples, help organize, write new articles, or just check for broken links... it all helps.

Translations

pasco is a worldwide project. Our team and users are spread out across the globe and often speak different languages. If you do too, we'd love to get pasco translated into your native tongue. It's easy, and each new translation opens the door to a huge number of new users.

Bug Reporting

This one is surprisingly underutilized. If you encounter a bug within pasco, no matter how small, we would love to hear about it. With such a small team, it's difficult for us to test every commit. Sometimes after we update a small snippet of code, a totally different piece of code breaks elsewhere. More people using and testing the software is always good, but if no one reports the issues they come across then it may not get fixed!

Social Posts

Have a few followers on Twitter? A quick post mentioning our @AceCentre account goes a long way. We've even been known to re-tweet some of our favorite shout-outs. And be sure to follow us to get the most up-to-date info on new features, releases, and sneak-peeks.

Testimonials

One sentence. Even that was a sentence and it was only two words! If you're a fan of pasco, we'd love to hear why with a short endorsement. Shoot us an email, Tweet, or Slack message. And if you'd like to have your testimonial on our website be sure to include your name, title, company, and picture.

Access

On-Screen Navigation

Enable or disable the 4-way navigation tool. Remember - you can reposition this just by dragging it - and resize it by pressing and holding on the tool - then dragging one of the corners. Have a watch of this video to see how it works.

Access Mode

There are currently three options;

1. 1 switch - Auto-Scan

2. 2+ switches

3. Wheel (NB: Experimental!)

Switch Setup - Background

Switch access works by mapping keyboard keys to different actions. A box which allows one or several switches to be plugged in and then connect to the device is then needed. Be aware that for pasco we are looking at switch boxes that support keyboard presses without any additional software. Some (such as the JoyCable and the Crick USB switch box) emulate a joystick button which won't work. Also switch boxes such as the Hook+ won't work either unless you follow our guide on how to use iOS switch scanning with pasco. The following currently work with pasco on iOS:

• Pretorian Applicator and iSwitch

• Origin Instruments Tapio

• Ablenet's Blue2 switch

• Tecla.

2+ Switches (Default)

By default switch access is set to Manual - which would allow someone to use the on-screen navigation tool - or use 4 switches to navigate the currently active language tree. For example the arrow keys - up, down, left & right - would allow someone to access the tree. Equally, the keys a (left), s (down), d (right), w (up) can be used. Lastly the keys 1 and 2 would allow a user to go left and right in the tree.

1 switch - Auto-Scan

Automatic scanning, often called "1 switch scanning" allows a user with one switch to navigate pasco. The computer moves through each item so the user doesn't have to - and only selects the one they want when ready.

Be aware - you need to select which switch key selects (moves forward) - which you can do in the option "Switch key to select items". There are then some options you can configure:

Loops (Default: 3)

The number of times the automatic scan runs through each level of the tree before stopping.

Delay at first item (ms) (Default: 1000 ms)

It is sometimes useful to have a delay at the first item in each level of the branch to help someone to time their switch press.

Auto-scanning delay (ms) (Default: 3000 ms)

The time the scanner moves from one item to a next automatically. Want it to scan quicker/faster? Move it down. Want it to scan slower? Move it up.

Configure Actions

Switch key to select items

Here you can choose your switches (keys) and what should do what action. Select the action (e.g. in Automatic/1-switch scanning you will need to just select the "Select item" action). Then add your key. Remove any keypresses that you don't want to be used by pressing the red cross.

Minimum Cue Time (ms) (Default: 0 ms)

By turning this on it stops the user selecting a large number of items in the tree before hearing the cue. You can change the default time here.

You probably want to keep it under 500ms other wise it can feel laggy

Ignore second hits (ms) (Default: 100 ms)

This feature stops the switches being responded to if they are hit within this timeframe. So for example, if a user presses a switch and hits immediately afterwards - pasco will ignore this second press if it is within the timeframe. Some

Helpers

We will add additional 'helpers' (actions that alter the tree) here - but for now we only have one helper:

Back option for all branches

It's really useful for single switch scanners to get back a branch if they need to. This adds the option of 'Back' to the end of each Branch, at the beginning of each branch or not at all.

Speech

Cue Voice

The cue voice - often called the private voice is the synthesised voice that is designed for the communication user to hear. Ideally this would be to a headphone or quiet speaker that only the communication aid user can hear.

Choose your voice and the related volume, pitch and rate (speed) of the voice as you wish. Note there is a plus symbol - this allows people who are using more than one language to add a different synthesised voice for that language. Note there is a line on each slider. This defines the default position so you can reset it if you ever slide this by accident.

Main Voice

The main voice - often called the public voice is the synthesised voice that is designed for the communication partner(s) to hear. This is often an amplified speaker.

Choose your voice and the related volume, pitch and rate (speed) of the voice as you wish. Note there is a plus symbol - this allows people who are using more than one language to add a different synthesised voice for that language.

First time run (Cue Voice)

For many people who are visually impaired its useful to 'hear' the items at each selected branch. This is like someone who is using their eyes to visually scan the interface. It give the user a fast way of scanning the items. If you turn this on we recommend making as fast as you can before the voice becomes hard to understand.

This won't increase the speed of any recorded messages. Note: This option is only available for automatic scanning.

Appearance

This area defines how the application looks and feels.

Font size

Adjust the font size of the text shown in pasco

Theme

There are a number of themes - some designed for people with a visual impairment - to aid easier reading of the text

Locale

To change the language of the app (the menus and the configuration text) you can change it here.

This doesn't automatically change the language of the trees/vocabulary. For that you will have to use something like google translate.

Vocabulary

Active Tree

Allows a user to switch the current active Tree. This means you could have one tree for social chat, another with spelling and another for a particular school or workplace. But more importantly it allows you to switch between a English only tree and a foreign language tree. More information, including how a user can switch without going into the configuration screen can be read here.

Tools

Load an example tree

Pasco has some example vocabularies installed which you can load up. Select the tree, Press "load selected"", then "Save Tree".

Export / Import

Here you can export or import your vocabulary file as a zip file - or a OBF file - to be used in different AAC programmes.

Edit Tree

Because you can have different "Trees" (Vocabularies) in pasco - you need to choose which tree you are working on, edit the tree - and then Save it when you are ready. If you want to make a new Tree - press new. More information on editing the trees can be found here

pasco is very much in-development. Its largely being provided by Ace Centre staff for the purposes of named individuals. If you start using pasco and need more support follow the below options

Email

Slack

1. Bi-Lingual. Small Thumb movement in 4 directions

Said is a 45-year-old man who lives at home with his wife. Said and his wife are Kurdish and have lived in the UK for 10 years.. Said speaks and understands English, his wife has limited English and speaks to Said in Kurdish. He has Motor Neurone Disease which has now affected his speech to the point others can no longer understand him. His eyesight is poor. He still operates a TV remote by holding the remote between his thumb and forefinger – but can only operate the 4 way TV controls. He wants to spell out whole words and communicate his care needs with carers. He has tried eyegaze technology in the past but this has not been successful.

1. Bi-lingual. High-Contrast requirements

Fen is a 56-year-old woman who lives in the UK, she is a first-generation immigrant from China. She has had a brainstem stroke limiting her physical skills to a small thumb movement. It is not clear what Fen can see – her family and care staff feel she can hear better than she can see. Prior to her accident she spoke and understood verbal Chinese (Mandarin) well with her family members. Fen now lives in a care home where staff are English speaking. Fen would like to make her care needs known to staff and her family would like to communicate further with her. Fen has begun to use a partner assisted auditory scanning system using a paper-based book put together with her family. As this system is in Chinese it is not accessible to care staff.

1. English speaking child with developing vocabulary

Joel is a 6-year-old boy who has a significant visual impairment and physical difficulties. He lives at home with his Mum, Dad, baby brother and dog. His family speak both Portuguese and English. He has trialled some AAC by auditory fishing (dragging his hand across a device and hearing a cue about what is underneath it) and selecting with a switch – but this has proven difficult. He can activate a switch well with his head. He has begun to use a partner assisted scanning book with his mother e.g to choose activities to play with; to make comments like telling his mum he loves her.

These Docs will help get you up-and-running quickly, guide you through advanced features, and explain the concepts that make pasco so unique.

What is pasco?

pasco is an open-source unique communication solution aimed at individuals who have a physical and visual impairment.

A quick overview

What makes it unique?

Note we definitely aren't trying to make something that already exists. There are many solutions those less visually impaired or with greater physical access can use - and should use! However if you want a purely auditory scanning interface you may want some features that these options struggle to provide as they try and meet the needs of a greater selection of indviduals. So what can we provide in pasco for auditory scanning?

• Lets imagine you want a auditory cue in one language - but output your main "voice" in another. Thats difficult to do right now in many commercial solutions

• If you want rapid 'pre' auditory scan - a auditory cue that is like quickly visually scanning the interface in front of you

• You want a recorded audio file (e.g. someones actual voice) for the main spoken output - and a different recorded audio file for the cue.

• Because the language file doesnt have pictures why can't you just write out somones list of phrases and messages in a text file?

• you want a way of scanning in-app in a special way - but be able to use the entire device too - not just in a really slow in-efficient way that is great for all other apps - but not communication.

• as well as simple text files wouldnt it be great to import and export to different communication apps? After all, your language is yours not a software companies.