open-standards/aac/aac-rs/tools/pagesets/DESIGN-emergent.md

First switches and messages: emergent communicators and first switch use

emergent.obz, built from phrases/sources/emergent.yaml. Shared conventions: DESIGN-phrases-common.md.

For people beginning to communicate, and for first switch use: the stages from "any press does something" to "wait for the choice you want" (report §2.12; the stages of switch use, Project Core's emergent communicators). The two simplest devices in AbleNet's own range set the pattern: one big button that says one message, and a button that says the next of a recorded series each time it is pressed (report §2.12). Neither product's name or material is used; the pages, messages and the behaviour designed here are ours.

The pages

First switches (the partner's index, 2 × 3) opens five groups. The person's own pages have no navigation cells: on a one-cell page, any press says the message. The partner moves between pages with the app's Back and Home (and the index pages' Back cell).

Group	Pages	Grid	What a press does
One message	Hi! · More, please! · Look at me! · My turn! · All done! · Help! · I want that! · Let's go! · My own message (to type or record)	1 × 1	says the message
Messages in turn	Good morning · Tell a riddle · Action song · My news · Reading together · Playing a game · Goodbye	1 × 1	says the next line (a sequence)
Press for fun	Fun words (shuffled) · Animal sounds · Party (shuffled)	1 × 1	says the next word, with a short animation
Make a choice	Drink or snack · Music or book · More or all done · Yes or no · This one or that one (photos) · What shall we do? · Snack time · Choose from four photos	1 × 2, 2 × 2	says the choice
Learn to scan	Two choices · Four in a row · Six in a row · Two rows	1 × 2, 1 × 4, 1 × 6, 2 × 4	says the choice

37 boards, 102 cells. Every person-facing page speaks without building a message (ext_aurasense_behaviour.message: "speak_only"): a first communicator's press should be heard, not collected.

The sequences:

• Good morning: "Good morning!" → "How is everyone today?" → "Today is a good day." → "Let's get started!"
• Tell a riddle: "I have a riddle for you." → "What has four legs but can't walk?" → "A table!" → "Ha ha! Got you!" (an answer that works in every language, with a pause for the listener to guess).
• Action song: "Clap your hands!" → "Stamp your feet!" → "Turn around!" → "Jump up high!" → "Now sit down!" (call and response: the group does each one).
• My news: "Guess what?" → "I have news!" → "I went somewhere." → "It was fun!" → "Ask me about it!" — to be rewritten, or recorded by someone at home, each day (fill).
• Reading together: "Let's read!" → "Turn the page!" → "Wow!" → "What happens next?" → "The end!"
• Playing a game: "Ready?" → "My turn!" → "Your turn!" → "Yay!" → "Again!"
• Goodbye: "It's time to go." → "Thank you for today!" → "See you tomorrow!" → "Bye-bye!"

Learn to scan goes from two choices to two rows. Every choice is something the partner does at once (tickle, sing, blow bubbles, clap, peekaboo, do it again), so every press is rewarded and the person learns that when they press decides what happens. The partner sets scanning to one at a time (linear), slowly, with a large highlight, for the first three pages, and row by row for the fourth. The index page says this to the partner.

What the app must do for these pages

Four things the app does not do yet. None is implemented in this branch.

1. A one-cell page takes any press

When a board has a single cell (and, for a switch user, the message bar and the navigation are not scanned — §5.5 and §5.6 let the person choose "not at all"), then:

• a touch anywhere on the board area selects the cell (draw the cell to fill the board; no gap that does nothing);
• every switch press selects it at once: no highlight to wait for, no scan step (proposed SPEC §5.9);
• a dwell anywhere on the board selects it, with the person's dwell time;
• the hold and release times (§5.7 item 3) still apply, so a bounce or a tremor does not count twice.

If the navigation is scanned, the scan is as usual: the cell, then Back / Home / Help. The Learn to scan pages say to the partner to turn the navigation's scan off while using them.

2. A large highlight

Settings → Switches gains Highlight size: normal / large: large draws a thick outline (at least 8 px, or 3 % of the cell's shorter side) and dims everything else on the board while scanning. It is the person's setting, kept with their scan settings, and never moves or resizes a cell (§3, §5.5 item 5).

3. Pages that speak without building a message

ext_aurasense_behaviour.message: "speak_only" on a board: its cells say their words at once and add nothing to the message bar; the bar is left as it was. Undo, Speak and Clear are unaffected.

4. The sequence extension

The data

A button with ext_aurasense_sequence:

{
  "label": "Good morning",
  "vocalization": "Good morning!",
  "ext_aurasense_sequence": {
    "version": 1,
    "lines": [
      {"say": "Good morning!"},
      {"say": "How is everyone today?"},
      {"say": "Today is a good day.", "sound": "media:3f2a…"},
      {"say": "Let's get started!", "at": [1, 2]}
    ],
    "order": "in_order",
    "at_end": "start_again",
    "add_to_message": false,
    "reset_after_minutes": 60
  }
}

Field	Meaning
version	1. A client that finds a higher version treats the button as it would without the extension, keeps the field, and warns once.
lines	Two or more. say: the words. at (optional): the place [row, col] of a cell on the same board whose current words and recording this line uses (the adult set's scripts are built this way, so editing a line's cell edits the script); a place, not an id, because a cell's place never changes (SPEC §3) while its id does when a set is added twice. sound (optional): a recording of the line (message banking: the app's media:<id>), played instead of the synthetic voice; it travels in a backup, and in another app's file only as a reference.
order	in_order, or shuffle (a new random order each time round, never starting with the line that just ended the last round).
at_end	start_again (after the last line, the next press says the first), or stay (the last line again).
add_to_message	Default false: the lines are said, not added to the message.
reset_after_minutes	Optional. If the cell has not been pressed for this long, the next press starts again from the first line.
label	The title, shown on the cell.
vocalization	The first line: what a client without the extension says, every time.

In the app's data model this becomes an optional cell field, sequence (beside Track B's hidden, sound, symbol, lang: written only when present, so a board without one is saved exactly as before; a value of another shape kept in extra). The OBF importer reads ext_aurasense_sequence into it, the exporter writes it back, with the lines in the export language where translations exist.

What a press does

1. Where it is. The app keeps, for each sequence cell, the person's place in it: the next line's index, the current order (for shuffle), and the time of the last press. This is the person's state, kept with their profile on the device (like their scan settings), never in the board: using a sequence never changes the board, its export, or its content address (SPEC §7). It survives going to another page and back, and a reload.
2. Starting again by itself. If reset_after_minutes is set and that long has passed since the last press, the place goes back to the first line (and, for shuffle, a new order is drawn).
3. Saying the line. The line is said as a cell's words are said: in the person's voice settings; if the line has at, that cell's current words (and, if the cell has a recording — Track B's message banking — the recording); else if it has sound, that recording; else say. If add_to_message is false (the default), nothing is added to the message bar.
4. Showing it. The cell keeps its title and shows, under it, the line just said, in large type, and where the person is ("2 of 4"), so a partner can follow. Screen readers announce the line.
5. Moving on. The place moves to the next line. After the last: start_again → the first line (a new order for shuffle); stay → the last line again.
6. Pace. A press while a line is still being said stops it and says the next: the person sets the pace. The hold and release times (§5.7 item 3) decide what counts as a press, so a double bounce does not skip a line.
7. Undo. The app's Undo after a sequence press moves the place back one line (the line is said again on the next press). Undo reached by scanning counts the same.
8. Usage. The press counts as a use of the cell (frequency), and the usage log records which line was said, so a partner can see how far the person went.
9. Modelling. In modelling mode (the partner shows how), a press says the current line without moving the place, so the person's own next press says the same line.
10. Access. A sequence cell is one target like any other, by touch, switch, dwell or pointer; on a one-cell page every press reaches it (§1 above).

What the partner can do

In the partner menu, never in the person's scan: Start again (the first line), Back one line. In Edit mode (Track B): edit, add, remove and reorder the lines; record a line (message banking for a sequence); set the order, the ending and the idle reset. A line made from a cell is edited there.

Translation

The lines are translated like any message. A sequence is said in one language: if any line of a cell has no agreed translation, the whole cell (title and lines) stays in English and is marked so. The English package's translations.<lang>.ext_aurasense_sequence_lines carries each language's lines.

5. Effects (press for fun)

ext_aurasense_effect on a button: sparkle, bounce or confetti. With the words, the app plays a short animation over the cell (at most one second), which never covers another cell, never delays the words, and stops if the person presses again. With the system's reduced-motion preference, or the person's own "Animations: off" setting, it shows a single still highlight instead. A client without it just says the words.

The proposed SPEC change

The sequence, the board behaviours and the one-target rule are written as proposed SPEC text in DESIGN-phrases-common.md (§2.2 Sequences, §2.3 Board behaviours, §5.9 One target, and the §8 addition that keeps unknown extensions). The text above is the reference behaviour behind §2.2.

Choices made

• No navigation cells on the person's pages. A Back cell on a one-cell page would take the page away; partners use the app's Back and Home, and the index pages have Back cells for switch and gaze users who navigate themselves.
• Every choice works. No page has a "wrong" cell; learn-to-scan pages reward every press, as early switch teaching recommends.
• Big, bright, high contrast. Saturated backgrounds (yellow, blue, orange, green, violet, red) with black text; a symbol where the index has one.
• Photos. "This one or that one" and "Choose from four photos" are templates for photos of the real things (fill: photo), because real objects and photos come before symbols for many first communicators.
• Translation of play. Animal sounds, the action song and the riddle were translated to what children in each language say (each language's own animal sounds; a riddle whose answer still works), not word for word.