Over the years, we've supported a number of clients who are Culturally and Linguistically Diverse. We have worked with clients who are bilingual, need to use a different language with family members and some that want to use their AAC to communicate whilst on holiday. Each use case is entirely different.

This article shares the key learnings from our years of experience supporting these clients and how that led us to build AACTools.

There are a number of obstacles you have to overcome when supporting these clients, one of the big ones is finding a Text To Speech (TTS) engine that supports the language you need and then getting it to work with your AAC package. This is not something we will address in the blog post, but it is something that we are working on at AACTools, so watch this space.

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Step 1: What language does the person actually want to speak?

It might seem obvious, but it is important to find out the specific language that your client wants to use. You need to make sure to go further than broad labels like "Arabic" or "Kurdish". Understanding the specific regional language that a client wants to use will save you time and make sure your client is using the language they need.

It's not as easy as it seems, for example, Sorani is the Central Kurdish dialect (spoken primarily in Northern Iraq and Western Iran). Sorani uses the Arabic script, however it is not the language "Arabic".

Pinpointing the exact language can be difficult, as family and friends may refer to the home language using various formal and informal terms. Sometimes people also might answer the question differently depending on if you ask them what language they speak, use or write. So make sure to ask the question in a few different ways to ensure that you are getting all the information you need.

Pro Tip: Just ask, double-check, and know that you might not get a simple answer so write a few things down and do some research later.

Step 2: What keyboard layout does the person "Write in"?

Many languages use a process of writing called 'transliteration'. This is where the user types using a Western (QWERTY en-US) keyboard layout, but the device converts it to the target script.

This is often fine for text messages and digital communication with friends, but the truth is that TTS engines may struggle with this. While some engines can handle it, often you need to write in the native target script for it to be pronounced correctly.

Another thing to consider is that a large number of people may be fluent speakers but not literate in the written form of that language. What do you do then? You likely want to look at phrase-based communication with stored audio files rather than a generative text-to-speech keyboard.

Pro Tip: The quickest way I've found to figure this out? Ask the family to show you the keyboard on their phone that they use to message family and friends. It can answer a million questions instantly.

Step 3: Input vs. Output

Is the person wanting to input text in a language they are comfortable with, but have it outputted in a different language?

A common use case is someone who is more comfortable typing in English but wants it spoken in Urdu to their family members. If this is the case, you need to start thinking about setting up translation (or stored messages).

Be aware that as soon as you enter the realm of dynamic live translation, you need to think hard about how to reduce the likelihood of errors.

Pro Tip: Assess their English proficiency in this specific scenario. If their spelling and grammar are good, the error rate will be low. When translating, context really helps so longer sentences translate better than single words.

Step 4: Consider what systems already exist

Before you build something from scratch, review the Ace Centre Language Library. It lists vocabularies available to you from different providers. Make sure you ask all the right questions about the vocabularies, like:

• Does it have the right keyboard layout?
• Does it work offline?
• Is suitable Text-to-Speech available?
• Does it meet the user's access and symbol needs?

For more on how to evaluate these tools, check out the Ace Centre Appraising AAC resources.

Step 5: Translating the Page Set

It's possible you need to create or modify a page set to be translated because nothing suitable exists. This is where we have you covered.

You can use the AACTools translation system to translate an entire page set and see a live working version of it.

Remember, we are using machine translation. For single words (buttons without context), accuracy will vary. You generally need to hire a translator native in that language to verify translations and potentially remove or add culturally relevant words.

Our tool is just that - a tool to speed up and enhance the process. It isn't magic (yet!), but it saves hours of manual copy pasting.

Step 6: How are you going to get a Keyboard?

So, our tool will translate the words and phrases on buttons, but it doesn't inherently translate keyboard pages (yet). You will need to do some legwork here unless you can copy and paste an already working keyboard from another user.

A great tool for this is WorldAlphabets, to use it:

1. Choose your language.
2. Choose a keyboard layout (if available).
3. Hit copy, and paste them into your AAC program. It works on the web, so this should work for page sets on iOS or Windows.

It's important to remember that the concept of an "alphabet" and a corresponding "ABC order" isn't universal. Japanese, for example, is typically ordered phonetically (the Gojūon order: A-I-U-E-O), not strictly alphabetically. Many Japanese users actually prefer a QWERTY-style layout (Romaji input) where they type English letters to generate Japanese characters.

Step 7: Region & Locale

Consider the Region or Locale settings of your AAC system or page set.

If you don't switch this to the target language, you might:

• Lose the ability to get predictions or smart grammar.
• Lose the ability to write in the correct orientation (e.g., Arabic is a Right-to-Left language).

Step 8: Try it out and iterate

The "perfect" setup in a quiet room often falls apart in the real world. Once you have your translation and keyboard ready, get the user to test it in the environments where they will actually use it.

• Does it actually work? It sounds simple, but testing the flow in a real conversation is very different from testing at a desk. Does the output make sense to the listener?
• Vocabulary Gaps: You might have translated the core words perfectly, but missed specific cultural foods, slang, or idioms that are essential for that specific holiday or family visit.
• Ease of Use: If the new language layout is too complex, the user might revert to their primary language out of frustration.

Be prepared to tweak the page set. Sometimes, a simpler phrase-based page is better than a complex grammatical keyboard for a short trip. The goal is communication, not perfection!