Can a tablet replace a physical letterboard?

A tablet version has to keep what makes a physical board work: big targets, a layout that does not shift, and no ceiling on vocabulary. TBoard keeps those and adds speech, wrong-tap cleanup, and board switching carried by the app rather than by the person beside the speller.

Does the person still tap the letters themselves?

Yes. There is no facilitation in the app and no physical support — the speller taps every letter themselves, and the app speaks the result.

Can I recreate our own board layout?

Yes. The board builder scales from two giant keys to a full keyboard, with your own labels, icons, or photos, so the layout the person is already fluent on can be rebuilt rather than relearned.

Guide

A letterboard app for the iPad

Q: Is there a letterboard app for the iPad?

Yes. TBoard brings letterboard-style typing to iPad and Android: familiar stencil and full-alphabet layouts, large well-spaced targets, and speech for whatever is spelled. A board builder lets you recreate the exact layout someone already knows.

Many families of nonspeaking children and adults use a physical letterboard — a stencil or printed board of letters that the person points to, one letter at a time, while someone beside them helps hold the process together. If that's your family, you've probably wondered whether the board can come to a tablet without losing what makes it work. That's the exact question TBoard was built to answer.

What a physical board does well

A letterboard has real advantages a grid-of-symbols app doesn't: every target is big; the layout never changes underneath the person; and it puts no ceiling on vocabulary — whatever they can spell, they can say. Those properties matter, and a tablet version has to keep all three.

What changes on a tablet

The board talks. Letters build words in a text bar, the person can see and edit what they've built, and the board speaks it aloud when they're ready — in their own chosen voice.

The partner's mechanics are carried by the app. Beside a physical board, the helper is swapping boards, clearing mistakes, and holding the target word in mind. TBoard carries those jobs — board switching, wrong-tap cleanup, showing the working text — so the person beside the speller can stay with the person instead of managing the process.

The touch settings absorb motor difficulty. Big, well-spaced keys, a tap guard that ignores accidental repeat taps, adjustable tap timing, and one-tap correction — designed for hands that standard touchscreens have failed, including severe speech apraxia. There's more on this in our apraxia-friendly AAC guide.

Familiar layouts stay familiar. TBoard includes letterboard-style stencil layouts alongside a full keyboard, and a board builder that lets you recreate whatever layout the person already knows — at whatever size works, from a two-key board up.

Independence, stated plainly

TBoard is independent and method-neutral. It is not affiliated with, certified by, or endorsed by any named communication methodology, and it isn't therapy and makes no treatment claims. The design premise is simple and worth stating clearly: the speller taps every letter themselves. There is no facilitation in the app — no one else's hand in the message. The app's whole job is to remove barriers between the person and their own words: bigger targets, forgiving touch, instant speech.

Beyond the board

Because the board is a keyboard, everything built on it stays typing-first: daily read-along lessons with spelling practice a family member can run without preparation, practice rounds, saved session activity, and custom lessons built from your own text or photos. The communication core — the board, text-to-speech, and custom boards — is free, with a 14-day full trial of the rest.

Common questions

Is there a letterboard app for the iPad? Yes — this one. Familiar stencil and full-alphabet layouts, big targets, and the board speaks what's spelled.

Can a tablet replace a physical board? It can keep what matters — big targets, a layout that doesn't shift, no vocabulary ceiling — and add speech plus wrong-tap cleanup.

Can I recreate our own layout? Yes, in the board builder — from two giant keys up to a full keyboard.

TBoard on the App Store (iPad)
TBoard on Google Play (Android tablets)

See it moving: the TBoard tour · Questions: support@mutedlabs.com