As a stroke survivor myself, I can assure you she has plenty to say. I used to type on my iPhone in the notepad app and in accessibility features you can have a button that will read it out loud when you select it. If she’s visually impaired, you can also turn on voiceover and it will help her navigate on her phone and read what she types out.

I kept a list of common things I wanted to say, like “May I have a lemonade, please?” and that helped with the impatient people or more hurried situations. Make sure she has something on her that states she has speech difficulties too, so people don’t think she’s having a current emergency and call an ambulance if she’s struggling to say something. There’s a great aphasia group on Facebook called Aphasia Recovery Connection I think that helped me feel less like a freak.

I highly encourage speech therapy right away. I’m 4 years out from mine, today actually, and just now in the groove of people thinking I’m “normal” sounding again. Tell her to keep her chin up. It’s terrifying, but it will get better. ♥️

Are any other of her faculties affected? I agree that Voiceover is great, but it might be information overload right now, especially if the stroke affected her processing time or her motor movements. Look into the sounding board app. You can set common messages. When she opens the app it will cycle through the messages out loud and she can select the message she is trying to convey. If she misses the message the first time, you can set it to cycle back to the top of the list so she can try again. That might be a more efficient way for her to communicate until she learns more complex things like voiceover.

Legally blind SPED teacher and behavior analyst in training here. I’d suggest an Apple laptop with VoiceOver enabled if she knows how to type or an iPad with a bluetooth keyboard. For longterm assistance, I’d check out your states Department for the Blind (each state calls it something different). They’d be able to conduct an assistive technology assessment and find what’ll work best for her. Let me know if you have any other questions.

If she has used a keyboard before, and is vaguely familiar with it, your best bet is to make whatever device she's already comfortable with accessible. I'm a big Apple fan because they work in a way that my damaged brain likes, but other people work better with Windows and Android.

If her motion isn't affected, you could also get a bluetooth keyboard for her phone or tablet to help her, and it's a little easier than learning all the swipes at once.

[removed]