Measuring Usability of a Computer-Based Treatment for Aphasia using Eye-tracking

Research Objectives: To investigate the usability of a treatment software designed for conversational practice in persons with aphasia.

Design: Pilot cross-sectional study utilizing eye-tracking and the System Usability Scale (SUS) to understand how people with aphasia interact with a computer-based software, AphasiaScripts®.

Setting: Outpatient rehabilitation research hospital in Chicago.

Participants: Three individuals with aphasia.

Interventions: AphasiaScripts® is a computer-based software that provides conversational practice to people with aphasia. Participants practice choral reading repeatedly with a virtual therapist. Words are highlighted and the virtual therapist’s mouth movements approximate those of a real person. The sentence structures used in the software allow people with aphasia to practice language that may arise in different situations. AphasiaScripts® is designed to be easy to use with a simple interface and minimal directions during practice.

Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measures are the gaze dwell time (as measured by eye-tracking) on the sentences and on the virtual therapist. Usability was also measured by the SUS.

Results: Participants looked at the sentences more than the virtual therapist at both the beginning and end of a practice session. Participants rated AphasiaScripts® as above average on the SUS.

Conclusions: Participants tended to look at the text more than the virtual therapist during practice. This suggests that attention to the text is more important than attention to the virtual therapist. Participants also found the software easy to use. Future directions involve recruiting a larger sample of people with aphasia and investigating variables such as aphasia severity and characteristics of the virtual therapist that may influence where participants tend to gaze during practice.

Author(s) Disclosures: AphasiaScripts is commercially available from the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. The authors receive salary from the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab but have no financial interest in the software sales.