Samsung’s new Wemogee app aims to help people living with aphasia

While it is unknown how many people live with aphasia on the planet, there are more than 100,000 people suffering from the disorder in Canada.

Aphasia is a communication disorder thats stems from a traumatic experience to the brain, like a stroke or aneurysm. It affects the language centres of the brain, resulting in difficulty in comprehending or communicating language.

Samsung Italia, the Italian branch of the South Korean company, has released an app called Wemogee. The new app, currently available in the Play Store, uses emojis to communicate with people living with aphasia. Aphasia patients understand emojis, says Francesca Polini Ph.D in Speech Therapy. Users of the Wemogee app are able to scroll through a list of emoji phrases and the person they are talking to will receive the phrase translated into text.

Through Wemogee, users have the option of more than 140 emoji phrases. Phrases like “How are you” and “I feel bad” are available in the app.

Emojis, gifs, memes are typically annoying, however, Wemogee gives communication back to people suffering from aphasia. Going through a stroke or any traumatic brain experience is bad enough, but losing your ‘voice’ can make a situation a lot worse. Although I currently cannot get the app to work, Wemogee will likely be useful for people with aphasia or other communication disorders.

Source: Samsung Italia and Aphasia

Via: The Verge