COMPA: Using Conversation Context to Achieve Common Ground in AAC
Stephanie Valencia, Jessica Huynh, Emma Y Jiang, Yufei Wu, Teresa Wan, Zixuan Zheng, Henny Admoni, Jeffrey P Bigham, Amy Pavel · 2024 · Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24) · doi:10.1145/3613904.3642762
Summary
This paper presents COMPA, a browser extension add-on tool designed to help AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) users and their conversation partners achieve common ground during online group conversations. The core problem is speed asymmetry: AAC users may take over a minute to compose a response, during which time the conversation moves on to new topics. When the AAC user finally speaks, their comment may appear out of context, leading to misunderstandings, dismissal, or discouragement from participating. The researchers conducted two formative studies — an analysis of two group conversations between AAC users and their communication partners, and a two-day participatory design workshop with two AAC users, three technologists, and three communication scientists. These studies identified three design goals: creating shared conversational context, providing awareness of AAC user intent, and supporting partner-initiated alignment. COMPA was implemented as a Chrome extension for use alongside Google Meet video calls. It provides a real-time transcript that automatically pauses when the AAC user begins typing, context marking that highlights which conversation segment the AAC user is responding to, LLM-generated starter phrases based on the marked context and a selected intent (reply, opinion, question, yes/no), and partner notifications that inform conversation partners about what the AAC user is typing about and their intended communicative action.
Key findings
The evaluation study involved 5 AAC users (10-40 years of AAC experience, using devices ranging from Tobii with switch scanning to Proloquo4Text) paired with their chosen communication partners in triadic conversations with a researcher. Four of five AAC user pairs said they would use COMPA in future online meetings. AAC users took more turns with the full version of COMPA (14.75 turns) compared to the basic pause-only version (9 turns), and the distribution of turns between AAC users and partners became more comparable with the full version. Communication partners rated context marking and typing notifications as the most useful features — these helped them know when and what part of the conversation the AAC user was responding to. Starter phrases received mixed reactions: three AAC users found intent-specific phrases most useful, but phrases were used infrequently (6 times each across all sessions) because they rarely matched the exact wording users wanted. A notable finding emerged from the discussion between AC5 and CP5 about mutual accommodation: CP5 initially insisted the AAC user should wait for others to finish, while AC5 pushed back that speaking partners should also wait, revealing how COMPA surfaced unspoken assumptions about conversational norms and responsibilities.
Relevance
This research addresses a critical gap in AAC technology: supporting real-time group conversations rather than just one-on-one exchanges. The "out of context" problem is one of the most significant barriers to conversational participation for AAC users, and COMPA offers a novel approach by making the conversational context itself a shared, interactive resource rather than trying to predict what the AAC user wants to say. The tool's design as a browser extension rather than a standalone AAC device is strategically important — it can work alongside any existing AAC setup, lowering adoption barriers. For accessibility practitioners, the study highlights that supporting communication is not just about the AAC user's device but also about equipping conversation partners with awareness tools. The tension surfaced between AC5 and CP5 about who should accommodate whom is a powerful illustration of how assistive tools can expose and challenge ableist assumptions about communication norms, making this paper relevant beyond its technical contributions.
Tags: AAC · augmentative and alternative communication · communication accessibility · group conversation · common ground · language models · conversation context · speech production disabilities