Attitudes toward Individuals Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Research Review

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a review of 13 studies of attitudes toward individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The following factors that influenced attitudes were found: characteristics of typically developing individuals, characteristics of the person using AAC, and characteristics of AAC systems' output. This research base indicates that females reported more positive attitudes than males, and that individuals with previous experience with people with disabilities reported more positive attitudes than did individuals who had no previous experience with people with disabilities. The AAC system and other factors studied did not appear to be influential as single factors; however, data from the studies reviewed provide support for the hypothesis that attitudes are formed by the interaction of many different factors. There has been limited research in techniques to change attitudes toward individuals who use AAC. A recommendation from this review is that future research should focus on strategies to modify both attitudes and behavior in order to reduce barriers to social interaction.

Communicative Competence for Individuals who require Augmentative and Alternative Communication: A New Definition for a New Era of Communication?

“…As Mirenda (1993) suggested, achieving true membership in communities is not just about policy and practice supports, it also requires the elimination of attitude barriers. Attitude barriers occur when people hold negative feelings that predispose them to act in ways that limit the communication opportunities of individuals who require AAC (Hodge, 2007;McCarthy & Light, 2005). Bob Williams (2000) described the problem of pervasive attitude barriers for individuals who require AAC:…”

Designing AAC Research and Intervention to Improve Outcomes for Individuals with Complex Communication Needs

“…There have been numerous studies that describe social attitudes towards individuals with complex communication needs (see McCarthy & Light, 2005, for a review), but to date there have been only a small number of studies (e.g., Lilienfeld & Alant, 2005;McCarthy, Donofrio-Horwitz, & Smucker, 2010) that have investigated techniques to promote positive attitudes and maximize social acceptance of individuals with complex communication needs.…”

Eficacia del contacto e información como técnicas de cambio de actitudes hacia personas con discapacidad en niños de Educación Primaria

“…Se eligieron este tipo de estrategias dada su eficacia en estudio previos (Aguado et al, 2003(Aguado et al, , 2004Almazán, 2003;Hodge et al, 2002;McCarthy & Light, 2005;Morton & Campbell, 2007;Slininger et al, 2000;Rillota & Nettelbeck, 2007).…”

“…Sin embargo, y pese a que se dispone de apoyo empírico acerca de la posibilidad de modificar y mejorar dichas actitudes (Flórez et al, 2009;Hodge, Davis, Woodard & Sherrill, 2002;Krahé & Altwasser, 2006;McCarthy & Light, 2005;Morton & Campbell, 2007;Slininger, Sherrill & Jankowski, 2000), los estudios centrados en la im plementación de estos programas y en la valoración de su eficacia siguen siendo una estrategia de intervención no muy difundida. Y ello, pese a haberse constatado que estas actitudes negativas aparecen a edades muy tempranas (Magiati, Dockrell & Longotheti, 2002;Maras & Brown, 2000;Nowicki & Sandieson, 2002), lo que enfatiza la necesidad de prevención.…”