The communication curriculum consists of three main modules: learning the alphabet, word formation, sentences. The student will progressively work through these modules until achieving a mastery of 70% accuracy or whatever is specified by the instructor. The teacher may also customize the sequence of the activities in order to best cater toward the needs of the student.

Alphabet Keyboard

• Learn the Alphabet

• Letter Mastery

• Quiz

Word Formation - split up based on different groups of words (i.e. foods, animals, places, etc.)

• Flashcards

• Word Prompt

• Quiz

Sentence Formation - split up based on different groups of words (i.e. foods, animals, places, etc.)

• Quick Phrases Flashcards

• Practice

• Quiz

The simulation portion of the platform is our defining aspect. No other education platform provides the ability for students to easily and safely abstract their typing skills. Each of the simulated environments represent different common communication platforms. When a student sends a message in these simulations, the message goes to the teacher who can respond through teaching portal. 

Email Simulation - the UI is similar to that of gmail where the user can specify the intended recipient, subject, and respond in a thread of emails. Additionally, the environment will have the ability to mark emails as unread/read. 

iMessage Simulation - one of the most popular was to communicate is a messaging platform. In this environment, the student can practice making group chats and having multiple different conversations with different recipients. 

Facebook Simulation - Facebook is one of the most commonly used social media platforms. One of the main challenges is the plethora of functions that are difficult to navigate; hence, we plan to have simplified functions to make the transition easier.

One of the most supportive parts of the Tech Buddies platform is the Lifestyle support. Pieces of technology are often overly complicated with the numerous options confusing first-time users. Our lifestyle sections are designed to make the piece of technology being used to cater to the needs of the individual using it. In this sense, we can fully support people with IDDs during their journey to digital literacy.

Apps Dashboard - With the plethora of opportunities avaliable on tech, we have found that many people with IDDs are unable to find the apps they really want to use. Hence, we provide accessible connections to their favorite apps through the apps dashboard. These apps can be changed based off of the interests of the user. 

Reminders - Students, parents, or teachers can set daily schedules for the user to complete set tasks. The user will be reminded through notifications and will have to click complete in order to stop the reminders. This feature is meant to help the user live more autonomously and relieving the pressure from caretakers. 

Quick Links - One of the guiding principles in creating the Tech Buddies platform is to connect people with IDDs with their loved ones. In an effort to fulfill this goal, our quick links page has pre-programmed numbers to parents or specified friends who can be contacted with the click of one button.