AAC refers to Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Many of our students are AAC users. This article looks at the language around the use of AAC from users' perspectives.

Words are the building blocks of language, and language is how we tell stories. It’s how we tell each other who we are. Words can shape perceptions—calling AAC a “clinical practice” paints a very different picture from saying AAC is “all the ways we communicate.”

In early 2022, AssistiveWare ran an online survey, asking people with a variety of relationships to AAC what they thought about 119 different words and phrases. The first research of its kind, our survey resonated deeply with the community—in total 556 people participated.

Read the full article here.

This article comes from the Assistive Ware blog. There are a number of other great articles including:

• Nonspeaking people have more to say

• Your child has been diagnosed with nonspeaking autism? Read this first.

• Modelling Autistic Pride

• 6 ways to become an autism ally

• AAC users need vocabulary to talk about sex, sexuality, and body parts