A Case Study By Daniel Gonzalez

Assistive technology is using aided tools to improve the lifestyles and skills of individuals. This term includes eyeglasses, hearing aids, close-caption television, wheelchairs, adapted computers, Braille elevator buttons, and AAC devices.

The Beginning of AAC Devices The use of alternative methods of communication can be traced back to ancient times when individuals who were deaf or could not speak developed a manual language. Manual languages were also used by Native Americans to communicate with members of other tribes. The beginning of AAC devices is considered to be the 1950s. Many of the first AAC devices were developed by professionals with disabilities who struggled to communicate with others.

The Beginning of AAC Devices As the years progressed into 1960 and 1970, the public and the government became more aware of individuals with disabilities. During the late 1960’s students with disabilities began receiving educational services. Many of the children had hearing and cognitive impairments. In order to compensate for the hearing impairments, professionals taught these students sign language to communicate. This raised the questions about the ability of cognitively impaired students to learn and use sign language. Based on this, research was done to teach children with mental retardation and autism to communicate with a structured program using symbols and sign language.

The Beginning of AAC Devices In 1963, the first piece of technology specifically designed for communication by individuals with severe physical disabilities was introduced. It was called POSSUM and was developed by Maling and Clarkson. POSSUM combined a typewriter with a switch controlled scanning device. It was available until the late 1970’s, but it was the beginning of the development of other AAC devices. Most of the early devices relied on spelling and were only functional for nonspeaking, literate individuals. They were also heavy, and impractical for real world uses.

AAC Devices Become More Mainstream by the 1970’s As AAC became more mainstream, it came under attack from professionals claiming that students would take the easy option of AAC, instead of pushing themselves to learn speech. After research was done, it was found that the use of AAC did not affect the individual’s motivation to speak. It actually encouraged them to use more speech to supplement the devices. Unfortunately, AAC still came under scrutiny and was only implemented after all forms of speech therapy had failed with an individual.

Further Development of AAC Devices The use of AAC grew further with the introduction of picture symbols for individuals who could not use the alphabet. The first graphic symbol system was called Blissymbols, created by Charles Bliss. The original system included 1,400 black and white symbols with written symbols. This system is still used and updated with new symbols yearly

Further Development of AAC Devices By the 1980’s AAC became an area of professional specialization and the American-Speech- Language-Hearing Association recognized it as an area of practice and suggested that SLPs have specific competencies to provide services related to AAC. In 1978, Purdue University was one of the first universities to offer a course on AAC.

AAC Devices Today Today, millions of individuals with communication disorders are using AAC devices. Research is being done in the areas of vocabulary selection, AAC and social interactions, AAC and literacy, using AAC to decrease behavior problems, and using AAC with multiple populations. With the development of technology, there are numerous AAC devices that can be used and adapted for individuals. Recent legislation, such as IDEA, has also helped with the wide spread services related to AAC.

References Information taken from MyAAC. Org