Enhancing AAC connections with the world

Abstract

The availability of new technologies has changed how we control devices, exchange information, and communicate with others. Significant barriers, however, have prevented many individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) from accessing the technology and computer-based activities available in today's "Information Society." In this paper we discuss the benefits and challenges to increased interoperability between AAC and mainstream technologies. We outline suggested roles and activities for six stakeholder groups: (a) individuals who use AAC, (b) individuals who assist in selecting and supporting use of AAC devices, (c) AAC researchers, (d) AAC device manufacturers, (e) mainstream application developers and technology manufacturers, and (f) public policy makers. We also provide suggestions for future research, public policy, and technical development.

A grounded theory of Internet and social media use by young people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)

“…This has created a paradigm shift that has been described as the democratisation of AAC due to the impact of increased choice, lowered costs and raised awareness of AAC [54,55]. Much has been written over the last few years about the symbiosis of these two areas [1,55,56,57] as integration has created opportunities for people who use AAC to engage with the Internet and social media in new and exciting ways. However, there are legitimate concerns in areas such as the robustness of design, ongoing support for mobile technologies compared to traditional equipment, access problems and concerns over quality and possible abandonment of AAC if Apps fail to meet expectations [53,57].…”

“…Much has been written over the last few years about the symbiosis of these two areas [1,55,56,57] as integration has created opportunities for people who use AAC to engage with the Internet and social media in new and exciting ways. However, there are legitimate concerns in areas such as the robustness of design, ongoing support for mobile technologies compared to traditional equipment, access problems and concerns over quality and possible abandonment of AAC if Apps fail to meet expectations [53,57]. Significant technical, policy and financial barriers have been identified for people who use AAC in terms of using the Internet [57] and simply supplying technology will not necessarily overcome participation barriers [58,59].…”

“…However, there are legitimate concerns in areas such as the robustness of design, ongoing support for mobile technologies compared to traditional equipment, access problems and concerns over quality and possible abandonment of AAC if Apps fail to meet expectations [53,57]. Significant technical, policy and financial barriers have been identified for people who use AAC in terms of using the Internet [57] and simply supplying technology will not necessarily overcome participation barriers [58,59]. 1 , camera detection/microphones which will be able to use any type of motion to control a computer, 'crowd sourcing' (human and computer based assistants within cloud technology environments) and Near Field Communication (NFC, allowing devices to connect when near each other).…”

Knowledge Co-Creation and Assistive Technology

“…Two such repositories are currently active. 4 Analyses have already shown that the best approaches for AT include open source soware that runs on mainstream hardware (rather than proprietary and commercial hardware and soware components) (DeRuyter, McNaughton, Caves, Bryen, & Williams, 2007), and modularized, component-based approaches (Pino & Kouroupetroglou, 2010).…”

The Changing Face of Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Past, Present, and Future Challenges

“…In the past, a small number of AAC manufacturers developed, produced, and supported a comparatively small number of dedicated AAC speech-generating devices (DeRuyter, McNaughton, Caves, Bryen, & Williams, 2007). More recently, the field has witnessed the explosion of mobile technologies (e.g., touch screen phones and tablets such as the iPad™ 1 ) with a wide range of "apps" (i.e., software applications), including those intended to support communication (RERC on Communication Enhancement, 2011).…”