Happy October and Welcome to AAC Awareness Month 2020!

By Hannah Foley, PRC-Saltillo Blogger

As I reflect on this year and all of its unprecedented happenings, I cannot help but think about how widespread the impact of the COVID has been on the AAC community. Not only have SLPs, AT/AAC specialists had to navigate treating clients through a computer screen, which was traditionally almost all done in-person, but AAC users and their families have also had to learn how to navigate a new world that is full of social distancing and remote learning. Such experiences have been challenging for everyone, but they present unique challenges to those who use AAC.

AAC users have been stripped of the various rich experiences that they strive off of everyday. Such experiences have a significant impact on not only their social life and communication skills, but also their emotional and mental wellbeing. They can’t go to school and see and interact with their peers, many are receiving therapy services as strictly teletherapy, both of which provide minimal inclusion and social opportunities for AAC users.

I have personally experienced such challenges in multiple respects. I am currently a
second-semester senior at the University of Illinois and this is my last semester of undergrad. I thought I had college and life all figured out, but COVID has challenged that belief in many respects. All of my courses are being held online this semester, and due to health and safety concerns, I did not return to campus.

“Verbal” participation and peer-to-peer interaction in a classroom that is full of students who are uneducated about disability and AAC is difficult enough in a physical classroom, and then add in an additional barrier of a computer screen. Wait time and inclusion of AAC users is extremely difficult in itself, and when the nonverball cues are diminished, it’s even more difficult to achieve inclusion and acceptance. How can communication partners, who are unfamiliar with you, know that you are using AAC and not looking at them through the computer screen because you are composing your message and not just surfing social media and not engaged in the conversation? How do you let communication partners know that your message is ready, but they just keep talking not realizing that you have anything to contribute to the conversation? Do you be rude and interrupt them so you can participate, or do you wait until and ​if​ they stop talking? Although I have the critical thinking and problem-solving skills necessary to overcome such challenges, it can be nearly impossible for some AAC users to navigate through such challenges, depriving them of rich and critical social and educational experiences.

So, how do we level the playing field and help AAC users navigate the world of social distancing and remote learning and make social interactions easier and more possible for them?

Clinicians could work on skills and strategies to help them be more engaged in virtual interactions and how to effectively manage the ignorance of other people. However, they already have specific goals that they need to work on with clients that were established prior to COVID. These are goals that target the development of social competence, psychosocial competence, operational competence, and strategic competence, all of which compose communicative competence that is crucial to basic and effective AAC use and communication in a natural setting. If time and focus is taken away from these things in therapy sessions, clients will regress in the skills and will be unable to communicate in natural settings. This is certainly not what we want nor need. 

Rather than putting full responsibility on AAC users, we need to educate society and build AAC awareness and acceptance in society. People need to be cognizant that although it may not seem “normal” or comfortable to them, there are multiple different ways that people with disabilities communicate and they need to accept all modes of communication. People who have complex communication disorders and use AAC are not dumb, they are not socially awkward, they don’t want to sit on the sidelines in social situations or in the classroom, nor do they want people to feel sorry for them. They simply want to be treated as normal people and be fully included and integrated in communication, employment, education, social settings, and beyond.

Throughout the month of October, the AAC community is striving to create a society in which this is a reality and we need to do so together. We will be filling your social media feeds with hundreds of posts about all things AAC, sharing experiences, tips and tricks regarding AAC, and challenging you to be an active participant in creating an inclusive society for all….so get ready for a month full of AAC fun