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It is a right for people who use AAC to communicate with other people and engage with their communities. This scoping review explores how AAC is currently being used by people with communication disabilities in social and community contexts and the impact the design of AAC systems can have on this communication. A total of 13 studies were included that proposed new AAC system designs, conducted interviews with people who use AAC and their chosen communication partners, or performed an AAC intervention. Six themes emerged from these studies that indicate people who use AAC desire interaction with others, can benefit from greater agency in the communication process, can leverage the script-like nature of certain interactions to improve their communication competency, make use of online and asynchronous methods of communication, use multiple modes of communication and AAC content representation, and can benefit from instruction in social communication and community engagement. Suggestions for future research on how to incorporate each theme into the design of new AAC systems are also provided.
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Adapting Design Workshops for Autistic Adults
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disability that impacts one’s social communication and interaction. When left unsupported, this can increase the amount of loneliness felt by autistic people. Communication technology, such as AAC, can be helpful in supporting social communication, especially when co-designed with autistic people. We conducted a series of design workshops to co-design a new AAC system specifically supporting social communication. In this paper, we focus on the accessibility issues that were identified when running our workshops and provide recommendations on how to improve the process. We found that it is critical to build support for information processing time into the workshops, include a variety of AAC stakeholders, and create a shared vocabulary between the workshop participants to make design workshops more accessible to autistic adults.
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- PAR ID:
- 10644018
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACM
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 9798400706769
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 5
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Denver, CO
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3663547.3759753
