Dr Abi Roper

Overview

Abi is a Research Fellow at City, University of London.

She is a speech and language therapist and researcher passionate about technology use within atypical speech & language populations.

She is a researcher co-investigator on the INCA project investigating how to empower people with aphasia to create, curate and access digital content through innovative technologies.

Her PhD examined a novel computer gesture therapy (GeST+) for adults with severe expressive aphasia - exploring its effectiveness, accessibility and usability and looking at the effects of aphasia on technology use in general.

She has worked on a number of key web resources to benefit professionals working in the field of speech, language and communication:
1. http://dcalportal.org - a communication assessment site for teachers & clinicians working with Deaf children & adults.
2. https://cityaccess.org/home - An online, easy to use platform offering training, therapy packages and assessment resources for clinicians and researchers working with people with aphasia.

Qualifications

• Introductory Certificate in Academic Practice, Higher Education Academy, United Kingdom, Oct 2020
• PhD Language and Communication Science, City, University of London, United Kingdom, Apr 2012 – Dec 2016
• MMedSci Clinical Communication Studies (Speech and Language Therapist Qualification), University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, Sep 2006 – Dec 2008
• BSc (hons) Cognitive Science, University of Exeter, United Kingdom, Sep 2000 – Jul 2003

Employment

• Speech and Language Technologist, City, University of London, Jul 2017 – present
• Research Fellow, City, University of London, Jan – Jun 2017

Memberships of professional organisations

• Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, Jan 2009 – present
• Health Care Professionals Council, Jan 2009 – present

Languages

Sign Languages (can speak and understand spoken).

Teaching

MSc Inclusive Design Guest Lecturer

Developed and delivered teaching to introduce postgraduate students on the Human Computer Interaction Design degree course to the principles of design for adults with language needs.

BSc Nursery Placement Clinical Tutorials

Facilitated clinical tutorials with a group of 20 trainee speech and language therapists.

Undergraduate Optometry Communication Skills -

Developed and delivered an interactive 2-hour session introducing trainee optometrists to methods for adapting their communication within practice.

SLT Tasters - Widening Participation Activities

Speech and Language Taster Sessions as a part of the City University London Widening Participation Ambassadors (WPA) Scheme.
Alongside a fellow PhD colleague, I developed an interactive half-day session of activities introducing school-aged children to the study of Speech and Language Therapy. We delivered this session, on request, to a number of different student groups, ranging in age from 11 to 17 years old and ranging in number from 20 – 40 students.

Maths Tutoring as a part of the WPA Scheme

Supported a group of eight year six students to prepare for SATs exams. I developed a set of targeted differentiated materials to support the students in practising their maths skills which have subsequently been adopted by the WPA scheme for use by other City University London students working as Maths Tutors across London.

PhD - Computer Delivery of Gesture Therapy

My PhD is entitled Computer Delivery of Gesture Therapy for People with Severe Aphasia. The project has involved designing, administering, analysing and reporting a randomised control group study of a language intervention for adults with severe communication difficulties (aphasia) following stroke.

Deafness, Cognition and Language

I'm presently working with researchers and technology developers to create http://DCALPortal.org - an on-line web portal for clinical and research assessments of deafness, cognition and language.

Computer Therapy for Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech

I've worked as a researcher and clinician on two major trials of computer-based therapy for aphasia and apraxia of speech. These are:

The GReAT Project (https://youtu.be/tnvYpaNuBNQ)
Here, I worked with Professor Jane Marshall, Stephanie Wilson and others at City to develop and trial a novel computerised gesture therapy intervention for adults with aphasia.

Computer Therapy for AoS (http://goo.gl/7fiirG)
I Worked on the SWORD project under Professor Rosemary Varley. This was a large trial of a computer-based speech and language therapy intervention aimed at remediating acquired word production impairments in apraxia of speech (AoS) and aphasia.

Virtual World Communication Rehabilitation

I've also been involved with the EVA Project (http://smcse.city.ac.uk/eva).
Here I acted as a Communication Support Worker to two people with aphasia in EVA Park - an on-line virtual communication environment similar to the on-line virtual community Second Life.

Featured publications

1. Roper, A., Davey, I., Wilson, S., Neate, T., Marshall, J. and Grellmann, B. (2018). Usability Testing - An Aphasia Perspective. Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. doi:10.1145/3234695.3241481.

   [publisher’s website]

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