AAC Learning Center

Educational resources for AAC

Access Technology for AAC and Adults

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Adult with safe laserIn a recent podcast for Speech Uncensored, Dr. Susan Fager discussed her research on access and communication technology, and how the work she is completing translates to clinical practice. Susan also covered the progression from low tech to high tech AAC that a patient may experience across their recovery stages. Dr. Fager provided case studies to illustrate creative problem solving and overcoming obstacles to provide patients with a means to express themselves.

Supporting Communication of Individuals with Minimal Movement

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Susan Fager, Ph.D. CCC/SLP Institute for Rehabilitation Science and Engineering at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, Lincoln, Nebraska
David Beukelman,Ph.D. CCC/SLP University of Nebraska, Lincoln Institute for Rehabilitation Science and Engineering at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, Lincoln, Nebraska Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Webcast Description For many years we have provided AAC services to people with minimal movement capability. Their medical conditions include brainstem stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Guillan Barre’ Syndrome, and chronic myasthenia gravis. As with others who rely on AAC, these people are multi-modal communicators in that they use high and low technology options depending upon the situation and the listener. High technology options include commercially available devices as well as technology under development. During the past year, we have provided presentations related to our work in this area at RESNA, the World Congress on Disability, and ATIA. In this webcast we present the content of those presentation through an interactive discussion format.
Additional Resources Slides and handouts
  • Transcript of presentation (pdf)
  • Transcript of presentation (txt)
  • Powerpoint slides as a handout (pdf)
A 10-item quiz based on the content of this webcast, is available at the AAC Learning Center Moodle. You will need to register at the AAC Learning Center Moodle in order to complete the quiz. Upon successful completion of the quiz, you will be able to download a Certificate of Completion.
This webcast was produced as part of the work of the AAC-RERC under grant #H133E080011 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)

Communication support for People with ALS

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Steve with i-seriesBeukelman, D., Fager, S., & Nordness, A. (2011). Communication support for people with ALS. Neurology Research International, 2011.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/714693

Almost all people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) experience a motor speech disorder, such as dysarthria, as the disease progresses. At some point, 80 to  of people with ALS are unable to meet their daily communication needs using natural speech. Unfortunately, once intelligibility begins to decrease, speech performance often deteriorates so rapidly that there is little time to implement an appropriate augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention; therefore, appropriate timing of referral for AAC assessment and intervention continues to be a most important clinical decision-making issue. AAC acceptance and use have increased considerably during the past decade. Many people use AAC until within a few weeks of their deaths.

Link to free copy

Adaptive Access: Key Design Considerations

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Dr. Susan Fager (University of Nebraska at Lincoln) and Dr. Adaptive Access: Key Design ConsiderationsJeff Higginbotham (State University of New York at Buffalo) present on Key Design Considerations for People with Communication, Motor, and Cognitive Challenges at the AAC-RERC State of the Science Conference in Baltimore Maryland, June 28, 2012.

This webcast was produced as part of the work of the AAC-RERC under grant #H133E080011 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)

The contents of this website are a joint offering of Penn State University and the RERC on AAC. They were developed, in part, under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90REGE0014) to the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (RERC on AAC). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this website do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
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