92 Free or Lite Versions of AAC Apps

Thanks to all who’ve given us great feedback and suggestions on our list of free and lite AAC apps. If you’ve been following our blog, you know that we have mixed feelings about the AAC app revolution. More specifically, we’ve had concerns about the decision-making process around app selection, and have advocated for that to occur within the context of a feature match process that gives appropriate attention to the full range of AAC options.

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In our digital curation sites, we link to tools we use for this process, such as the feature match forms developed by Jessica Gosnell at Boston Children’s and the ones created by Scott Marfilius and Kelly Fonner. In our own teaching and clinical work, when AAC apps are being considered, we’re beginning to use a supplemental rubric that focuses more specifically on the language aspects of the app using this working draft. That is still in the preliminary stages, but we are happy to share the initial draft.

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Because this list sometimes gets circulated without the context in which it was originally developed, we decided to include some previous posts, resources, and comments related to this topic.

1. Our post on 5 Things to Do Before you Choose an AAC App
2. Comprehensive AAC app list for iPhone and iPad by Jane Farrall
3. Scoop.It collection and Pinterest boards with AAC app sites and videos
4. OCALI’s listing of apps for individuals with ASD
5. Tech Connect’s Apps Assistant
6. The App Academy’s site for app training videos

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And, finally, some excerpts from our original post:

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Graduate student SLPs are a fairly diverse group, but one thing that is common to almost all of them is that they are on a very limited budget. Although many of the AAC apps are reasonably priced, even that can be a lot for a struggling student. We wanted to put together a list of the free or lite versions of AAC apps for them to explore on their own iDevices.

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First, a few caveats:
1. Selection of AAC tools is always made after a thorough assessment. This is as true for apps as it is for SGDs.
2. This list isn’t intended in any way to endorse these apps or suggest that the free/lite version is sufficient. Hopefully, it will give future professionals a taste of what these  apps can do and allow them to begin to think about how to make decisions about this in the context of a feature match assessment. Review sites like the one at Spectronics and OCALI can be very useful when you are trying to see some of the features that apps contain.
3. This list isn’t comprehensive. If you have links to other AAC apps that are free or have lite versions, please send them along and we will update our list.
4. Students, remember what we’ve taught you about AAC. This doesn’t supersede what you’ve learned about AAC and language assessment, symbol selection, multimodal communication, etc.

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iDevice Free or Lite AAC Apps

1. AlexiCom AAC
2. Answers: Yes/No Free
3. Assistive TTS
4. Augie Free (NEW in US)
5. Autism 5-Point Scale EP (Autism Help)
6. Com App
7. Comunicador Personal Adaptable(Spanish)
8. Communicate Mate Female
9. Communicate Mate Male
10. Connect Cards
11. DIME Lite
12. Fat Cat Fast 20
13. Fat Cat Pirate Chat
14. FreeSpeech
15. Functional Communication System Lite
16. Gabby Tabs Lite
17. Grid Player
18. iBlissymbols Lite
19. iComm
20. iPhonic Lite
21. iPicto Lite
22. Locabulary Lite
23. MetaTalk Lite
24. My Choice Pad Lite
25. My Talking Phone
26. MyTalk Tools
27. Neo Julie (also Kate and Paul)
28. Noni Lite
29. OneVoice-AAC
30. PandaPal AAC (NEW)
31. Phrase Board
32. Pic A Word
33. Pics Aloud Lite
34. Picture Card Maker
35. Picture Board
36. PocketAAC-Lite
37. Point to Pictures Lite (NEW)
38. Say Hi AAC
39. SayItForMe Lite (NEW)
40. See and Say Lite
41. Scene & Heard Lite
42. Small Talk Aphasia (Male & Female)
43. Small Talk Conversational Phrases
44. Small Talk Daily Activities
45. Small Talk Intensive Care
46. Small Talk Pain Scale
47. Sounding Board
48. SFY_Speak4Youself Lite (Recently pulled from iTunes but may be reinstated)
49. Speech Button
50. Speech Buttons Free
51. Sono Flex Lite
52. Speak All
53. Speak for Yourself LAT Kids
54. Spubble Lite
55. Talk Assist
56. Talking Cards Lite
57. Talking Text
58. Talk Tommy
59. Talk to Me 100 (free version has 9 locations)
60. Talk 4 Me
61. Tap to Talk
62. Touch Chat Lite
63. Verbally
64. VocaBeans EN
65. VoiceSymbol AAC

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Android Free or Lite AAC Apps

1. AAC Speech Communicator (French, English) (NEW)
2. AAC Talking Tabs
3. Alexicomm for Android (30+ free pages)
4. Autism Speech – Diego Says
5. Free AAC
6. FalaFacil – DiegoDiz (Portugues)
7. FreeSpeech (NEW)
8. Gabby Tabs Lite: AAC for Kids (NEW)
9. HablaFacil – DiegoDice (Spanish)
10. iToucan Talk (NEW)
11. JABTalk
12. LangLearner Speaker (NEW)
13. MyVoice MyWords Tablet (NEW)
14. PictoDroid Lite (Spanish, English) (NEW)
15. Sono Flex Lite
16. SpeakForMe Free (NEW)
17. Speaking Pad
18. Talk Android
19. Talk 2 All (for phone communication) (NEW)
20. Tap Talk Free (NEW)
21. Tap to Talk
22. Touch and Go Speak (NEW)
23. Touch-n-Say (NEW)
24. Two Speak (NEW)
25. Type and Speak
26. VirtualTEC (NEW)
27. Vocal Slides (NEW)

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