The September issue of AAC is a special issue with Jeff Higginbotham as the guest editor.  He has put together an issue entitled “State of the Science in AAC,” which is authored by members of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Communication Enhancement (AAC-RERC).  If you don’t know about RERC, Jeff will explain all in his guest editorial.  Don’t miss it.  The authors’ commentaries on their articles follow.

John Todman (Editor AAC)

Key Principles Underlying Research and Practice in AAC

Sarah Blackstone, Michael Williams, and David Wilkins (Canada and Australia)

Each area of research and practice is governed by certain principles. These principles serve as goals or standards and provide a framework within which to construct and evaluate various activities within a field. Sometimes the principles are explicitly stated. This article sets forth six widely agreed upon principles that guide the work of AAC researchers and developers in the area of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The field of AAC offers technologies and strategies that positively affect the lives of millions of individuals with complex communication needs (CCN) around the world. The first principle highlights the critical need for individuals who rely on AAC to participate actively in all AAC research and practice, so as to ensure that the AAC technologies and strategies reflect their needs and priorities in meaningful ways.  A second principle emphasizes the importance of grounding AAC research and development activities in widely accepted theoretical constructs, taken both from within and outside the field. A third principle underscores the importance of relying on accepted ergonomic principles when designing AAC technologies.  Principle four stresses the crucial and sometimes unique roles communication partners play during interactions with individuals with CCN. The fifth principle calls attention to the purposes of AAC technologies, which extend beyond language and communication in ways that must enable individuals with CCN to maintain, expand and strengthen existing social networks and relationships, as well as to meet their personal goals and fulfil meaningful societal roles. Principle six addresses the importance of outcomes that are practical and have social validity to multiple stakeholder groups. Although there are more principles

impacting the work within the field of AAC, these six are considered primary, especially by those participating in the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Communication Enhancement (AAC-RERC). 

AAC Technologies for Young Children with Complex Communication Needs:

State of the Art and Future Research Directions

Janice Light and Kathryn Drager (USA)

When our own children were born, we marveled at the magic of their first years as they developed language skills and learned to communicate with others. We wondered how to capture this same magic for infants and toddlers with complex communication needs who require AAC. We believe that AAC interventions offer tremendous potential to enhance communication and language skills of young children, but we also believe that this potential has not yet been fully realized. In this paper, we summarize the research related to AAC technologies for young children who have complex communication needs. We then propose some exciting new directions for future research to improve AAC technologies and interventions for young children with complex communication needs. It is our hope that this paper will encourage future research so that, as a field, we can better meet the needs of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers who require AAC and ensure that they truly experience the full power and the magic of communication! 

AAC Technologies to Enhance Participation and Access to Meaningful Societal Roles for Adolescents and Adults with Developmental Disabilities who Require AAC

David McNaughton and Diane Bryen (USA)

Individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and their families, have new expectations for life after high school. In the past two decades, effective use of AAC technology has supported desired outcomes for individuals who use AAC in college and university settings, employment, and independent living. At the same time, we know that many individuals with developmental disabilities who require AAC lack appropriate communication systems and supports. Their communication challenges severely restrict their participation in traditional adult roles as students, workers, friends, partners, citizens, and parents.

In this paper, we review the existing literature on the experiences of adolescents and adults who use AAC as they have participated in postsecondary education, the workplace, and community living activities.  We also propose an agenda of future research and development for AAC technology to better support individuals who use AAC in assuming important societal roles in the adult world.

Individuals who use AAC expect to be full participants in our society. Increased attention to the need for AAC technology that can support participation in face-to-face and distance communication, that assists in providing training and support for system use, that includes adapted applications and cognitive tools, and that can be independently operated and maintained, can play a key role in empowering individuals who use AAC to participate in meaningful societal roles.