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The academic literature has shown the importance of using contemporary technologies to support communication. This work proposes a computational system to support Augmentative and Alternative Communication by using tangible interaction, in the perspective of Universal Design. The development of the system, which was conducted by participatory practices with special education professionals, has allowed adaptations to meet the needs of students who use assistive technology to communicate in inclusive classrooms. The new version of the system was experimented in a case study with a child who has complex communication needs. This new version presented relevant and positive results, and the student showed great satisfaction and motivation when using the system. As the results are noticeable when a barrier is eliminated through an accessible system, it is confirmed that the barrier/deficiency is in the environment and not in the person. Therefore, accessible environments enable people to have the same rights to communication. In addition, it is important to highlight that the social insertion and the cognitive development of all people is benefited from the access to communication. Results of the case study also showed the importance of participatory practices for the construction of new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern and ubiquitous computational systems increasingly demand more evaluations, which consider aspects beyond ergonomy, usability and accessibility to include means of understanding the affective states of those involved in the interaction. Nevertheless, whenever the involved parties are predominantly children, it becomes necessary to promote ludic and accessible means of involving people in the evaluation activities, because it is expected that the assessment tool used allows all stakeholders to express themselves according to their age and understanding. Existing studies have proposed abstract solutions that difficult the comprehension and participation of those involved in the expression of affective states. In this article, we developed and evaluated the TangiSAM environment, which includes sets of tridimensional concrete manikins that take advantage of tangible technologies, allowing the assessment of affective states in a ludic manner. We conducted an evaluation in a real-world educational setting, including both children and teachers, in order to understand whether the TangiSAM's tangible artifacts favor a better selfevaluation experience. We found that TangiSAM was more frequently assigned as the most favorite by the participants in the comparison to other affective-state representation proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]