September 7, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
It’s been a depressing week for us. Too many exchanges with SLPs who should know how to ‘do’ this intervention and don’t. Too many conversations with parents who have not been able to access decent AAC services. Too many delays in getting devices in the hands of clients. We’ll get back to being positive and solution-oriented, but first we need to wallow in the misery of it a bit. The case for improved services to individuals with little or no functional speech is perhaps best made by those whose voices we cannot hear in a traditional sense. Below is a sampling of quotations from scholarly and personal writings of and by users of AAC. Michael Twice a week my academic pursuits were interrupted. I was sent out of the classroom and wheeled down to the other end of the building where I was put into a small, airless room to await... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: advocacy, rant, transitions
February 4, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Is anyone else totally floored by the stories of good people getting into bad situations that have been in the news lately?? While it can happen to anyone, it is probably true that people who use AAC face a number of safety risks that the rest of us don’t think much about. The people we work with may not have the vocabulary they need to talk about safety issues, report abuse, or even state objections/resistance in a forceful way. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The latest story to cross my inbox made me think of some of our AAC friends and what we, as SLPs and clinical educators, should be doing to provide support. The Canadian organization Augmentative Communication Community Partnerships, has some wonderful resources to help get us started. Among them is a set of communication displays, both text and picture-based, that can be useful to individuals with AAC needs.Originally... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: advocacy, communication boards, safety