T-Rex Successful, Slightly Famous, Autistic Adult

The core philosophy: T-Rex Talk

The current landscape of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) often leaves the most important stakeholders — the user and their immediate support network — as passive consumers of rigid, expensive technologies.

T-Rex Talk is shifting from a single tool to a diverse set of communication devices and open-source frameworks. This PhD research seeks to ensure that the people who best know a special-needs individual can build, modify, and evolve the specific tools that work for them.

Research motivation: the problem of abandonment

Proprietary assistive tech carries a high risk of technological abandonment. If a company shuts down or a model is discontinued, the user loses their “voice.”

• The open-source imperative: I believe open source is the only ethical path for AAC. It ensures that the user is never left abandoned by corporate cycles.
• The maker advantage: By leveraging the global maker movement, we can now collaborate across the world to affordably iterate on software, electronics, and physical interfaces (like 3D-printed buttons). T-Rex Talk lives at the intersection of these three disciplines.

Proposed research pillars

1. From stop-gap to bespoke systems

I’m interested in how “found” objects — like dog-talking buttons — can serve as immediate communication bridges while waiting for professional therapy. My research will study how we can transition these low-cost, 2-part-plus-print builds into sophisticated, personalized communication suites.

2. The collaborative “toolbox”

We don’t know what we don’t know, but a global community might. By sharing and publishing our hardware designs and software, we can:

• Connect with families in similar situations.
• Crowdsource solutions from unaffiliated creators.
• Expand our device library to fit diverse physical and cognitive abilities.

3. The clinical seminar model

A central goal of this PhD is to create a multidisciplinary “Seminar Class” environment. This team will:

• Analyze the needs of specific individuals to build custom solutions.
• Simultaneously expand the global T-Rex Talk toolbox.
• Bridge the gap between “grassroots making” and peer-reviewed academic rigor.

Conclusion

The goal of this doctorate is to prove that high-impact, low-cost, and hyper-personalized AAC is most effective when it is open and collaborative. By expanding the scope of T-Rex Talk into formal research and publication, I aim to reach more people, invite more contributors, and validate the power of maker-led assistive technology.