Troubleshooting

Kalam uses the device’s own built-in voices.

• Check the device volume and that it isn’t muted or on silent.
• If the device has no voice for the board’s language, Kalam stays silent on purpose and shows a small muted-speaker icon on the message bar (tap it to dismiss). That means a voice is missing, not that the app is broken.
• Fix it in the device’s settings, not Kalam’s: open Text-to-speech (Android: Settings → System → Languages & input → Text-to-speech output) and install a voice for your language.
• Meanwhile the completed message stays visible in the message bar, so the person can still communicate.

The board runs fully offline, but some device voices only work online.

• In the device’s Text-to-speech settings, install an offline (downloadable) voice for your language. On Android this is usually a “download” next to each voice.
• Test it honestly: install the voice, turn on airplane mode, and press SPEAK on a tile.
• If no offline voice exists for your language on that device, Kalam shows the muted-speaker icon when offline — the board still works visually, and speech returns online.

The on-screen switch needs a touch screen. On a phone or a tablet held upright it is on unless someone turned it off; on a wider landscape layout you turn it on yourself.

• Check Settings → Switch & scanning → Switch on screen first. On a wider landscape layout it starts off, and this is where you turn it on — the board then makes room for it along the bottom rather than covering anything.
• On a phone or a tablet held upright it is on unless someone turned it off. The same row turns it back on.
• Turning the tablet upright also brings it back, because upright is where it is on by default.
• A computer with no touch screen does not offer it at all — the row is not even shown there, because a bar along the bottom of the screen is nothing a mouse can usefully press. Use a keyboard or an external switch instead.

• Turn it off in Settings → Switch & scanning → Switch on screen → Off.
• Kalam remembers that choice on this device until you turn it back on. Nothing else switches it off, and no amount of touching the board will remove it on its own.
• Worth pausing on first: touch and scanning can both stay available, and the strip only takes the bottom of the screen. If the person’s touch becomes less reliable later, the switch is already there.

Kalam listens for a button press; it doesn’t pair anything itself. A paired remote that does nothing is sending a key Kalam isn’t set to recognise.

• Confirm the remote is paired in the tablet’s Bluetooth settings (not in Kalam).
• Try its buttons: Kalam recognises Space, Enter, and the number keys 1, 2, 3 out of the box.
• If none work, teach Kalam the button: Caregiver Controls → External switch, press it once, then again to confirm.
• Space and Enter always keep working as a fallback, whatever you set.

The interface is what the tablet can see. The switch plugged into it is invisible to both the tablet and Kalam.

• Check which socket the switch is plugged into, and which key that socket is set to send. Interfaces with two sockets often send a different key from each one.
• Space, Enter and the number keys 1, 2 and 3 work automatically. If the socket is set to something else, open Caregiver Controls → External switch and teach Kalam that key.
• Test the switch itself by pressing the interface’s own button if it has one. If that works and the switch does not, the problem is the switch, its cable, or which socket it is in — not Kalam.
• If you have just changed the socket’s key on the interface, teach it again: Kalam learned the old one.

A caregiver stop is deliberate, and Kalam protects it so that a switch knocked in the bedding cannot restart the board on its own.

• Start again with Start scanning in Caregiver Controls.
• If the on-screen switch is visible, the person can press it to start scanning again themselves.
• Reloading Kalam also clears it — a fresh session goes back to starting on the first press.
• This only applies after a deliberate stop. Normally the very first press of the session starts scanning with nothing for you to do.

• Quickest fix: Caregiver Controls → Scan speed → slow / medium / fast.
• If it’s almost right, the finer controls are in Settings → Switch & scanning → Advanced scanning. They’re separate from the slow/medium/fast setting, so adjusting them won’t get wiped when you change speed.
• If the person overshoots the moment a new group lights up, increase Zone pause.

• Tile edits persist only when you press Save — a brief “Saved” confirms. Left without saving? Kalam asks first (“Discard changes?”); if you discarded, re-open the tile and Save.
• A red save-error instead of “Saved” usually means device storage is full or blocked (some private-browsing modes block saving to the device). Free up space, or use a normal (non-private) window, and try again.
• Everything is stored locally on that device only. If changes vanished after clearing browser data or resetting, that’s a reset — see the next item.

Kalam keeps everything on the device — there is no cloud copy. A reset, a “clear data,” or a new tablet starts Kalam blank.

• This is what the backup file is for: Settings → Backup → Choose backup file… → pick your kalam-backup file. Kalam shows a summary and asks you to confirm before replacing anything.
• Without a backup, the customisation will need to be entered again. Export a backup so this is covered next time.
• A backup only opens in a version of Kalam it was made for; if it can’t, Kalam tells you why rather than importing it half-right.

• Not installed yet? Accept the install prompt, or on iPad use Share → Add to Home Screen. Then always open Kalam from its home-screen icon, not a browser tab.
• The very first launch right after installing opens the page you installed from (often the website) — that’s normal. Tap Open Board; every launch after opens straight to the board.
• On a desktop or laptop the installed app opens in its own window rather than true full-screen — expected on desktop, and fine because desktop is the setup machine, not the bedside one. On the tablet it opens full-screen.

Kalam can’t override the device’s own screen timeout.

• In the device’s display settings, lengthen the screen timeout (or set it not to sleep while the person is using the board).
• Keep the tablet on its charger at the bedside — a “never sleep” setting drains battery faster.

• Tap the board once so it is active. A background browser tab won’t receive key presses.
• Make sure you’re on the board, not a caregiver screen — switch presses are ignored while Caregiver Controls, the editor or Settings is open, so a caregiver’s typing can’t disturb the board.
• If a key does nothing at all, try the other one — both Space and Enter select — and check the keyboard is connected.

Kalam recognises several keys as “select” (Space, Enter, 1/2/3) so most remotes work out of the box — but that can mean a remote’s other button also triggers a selection.

• Use Caregiver Controls → External switch to teach Kalam the one button you want. It learns that button alongside the always-on Space/Enter fallback.
• Choosing a clear, dedicated button and briefing the person to use only that one is the reliable fix.

A newer version of Kalam has downloaded in the background and is waiting.

• Nothing is broken and nothing is urgent. Kalam never interrupts the board to update itself — the new version takes over on its own the next time Kalam is fully closed and reopened.
• To apply it now: gear → Settings. The Update ready box is at the top, with an Update now button.
• Updating reloads the board once. Customised tiles, saved words, settings and the current message are all kept. A word being spelled is not, so finish it or clear it first.