ACES: a cross-discipline platform and method for communication and language research.

While conducting research focused on individuals with impairments is vitally important, such experiments often have high costs (time and money), and researchers may be limited in the instructions they can give, or participant feedback they can gather (due to the impairment). We present how an impairment emulation system (ACES) can be used by researchers in the behavioral sciences. By repurposing this new technology within the context of a "traditional" psychology experiment, we were able to analyze impaired linguistic and communication in a manner that was not possible without a system such as ACES. Our experiment on 96 participants provided strong support for a theory in the aphasia psychology community, and uncovered new understandings of how people communicate when one interlocutor's speech is distorted with aphasia. These findings illustrate a new direction of HCI research that directly helps researchers in Psychology, Communication, and Speech and Hearing Science.