Hackaday.io user Thornhill! was recently tasked with creating a tactile Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) device; a speech-generating communicator for someone who is largely nonverbal and has difficulty using touchscreens.

10 x 16 grid of snap-dome buttons covered with a sheet of icons, represent 160 pre-recorded phrases that play when their buttons are pressed. The snap-dome buttons have a nice tactile feel and are covered in a membrane that gives the grid some resistance to spills.

While it’s designed to sit next to the client on their desk, I added hinges and a battery backup, allowing the board to be folded up and transported. I also created a miniature portable version with 16 phrases and a neck strap for on-the-go communication.

The project is based around a Adafruit RP2040 Prop-Maker Feather and two Adafruit TCA8418 Keypad Matrix boards to read all the keys. The project was coded in CircuitPython.

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