How it works
EyeSay splits a communication system into the part that must never change and the part that should. That separation is the whole design.
Forty-eight permanent slots in an 8×6 grid. Each slot has a stable identity, so a word learned in row 2, column 5 stays in row 2, column 5. Category cells that open more words are shaped and marked differently from cells that speak, so the difference is never carried by colour alone.
Eight visually distinct slots sit alongside the grid. They respond to time of day, the current routine, the place and the communication partner. The halo is frozen while a selection is in progress, so nothing shifts under a finger or a dwell. It always includes SOMETHING ELSE, so a suggestion set is never a closed choice.
STOP, NO, HELP, BREAK and TOILET are always reachable and cannot be removed by routines, editing or context. Self-advocacy is not a reward for compliance.
Selected words gather in the utterance ribbon with Undo, Clear and a large SPEAK. Longer sentence options can be offered, but a suggestion only becomes speech when the communicator presses it — and SPEAK MY WORDS is always offered alongside, unchanged.
Model Mode mirrors the same grid topology and highlights cells for teaching. It cannot insert anything into the communicator's ribbon and it cannot trigger their voice.