Forum Proceedings

Mary Ann Merchen

Primary Consumer
Dansville, Illinois

After attending the Forum on Communication Enhancement, Mary Ann Merchen posted the following on ACOLUG on June 15, 2001 and asked that it be included in the introduction to her letter:

Last week I attended a forum about communication. While I very much enjoyed meeting people, the forum sort of discouraged me, causing me to write the following article. I was going to try to have it published in a journal of some kind and was not going to post it anywhere. However, after reading a posting about a child who does better as far as being more accurate with his Dynavox when he doesn't use it all the time, I decided to post my article on DynaMicDuos and send it to some people who were at the forum. (I think more parents, teachers, and users will read the article if I post it on one or two listservs rather than trying to have it published in a journal.)

How Far Has the Field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Actually Come

I attended the Stakeholder Forum on Communication Enhancement in Buffalo, New York On June 5th and 6th. The purpose of the forum was to obtain input from consumers of communication aids, people such as parents and therapists who assist users with communication devices, researchers in AAC, and representatives from manufacturers, regarding how to improve these machines by using technology that is or will be available to the general public in the next several years. This forum was hosted by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology Transfer (T²RERC) and the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Communication Enhancement (AAC-RERC)

I was one of twelve AAC users to be chosen to participate in the Forum on Communication Enhancement. In the attempt to have all the participants have as many opportunities to make comments as possible, the forum had four groups that discussed advanced input technologies; communication processing; speech output, display and context recognition and wireless integration. There were four AAC users in the two groups, which were communication processing and wireless integration, that I took part in.

While I enjoyed participating in the group discussions and talking with other AAC users, at least, three things at the forum were discouraging to me. First, a lady was there, using Morse code to compose what she wanted to say with her Liberator. While she seemed very happy to have a way to communicate, I kept on thinking that there has to be an easier way for her as well as others, who are able to use a switch well and can memorize a complicated code, to express themselves. The second thing that was discouraging for me was to see two people have to use traditional headpointers to select items to compose what they wanted to communicate with their Dynavoxs. These two people also seemed very happy to be able to say whatever they wanted to express. However, more than once I wondered why optical headpointers cannot be improved, so people do not have to wear things that make them look like they are from outer space. Finally, the last thing that caused me to wonder how far the field of AAC has come in the past 25 years was when another AAC user and I went outside to sit and talk the evening the forum was over. The other AAC user asked me a question, but I could not use my Dynavox because there was enough sunlight to cause a glare on my communication aid. I am able to talk some, and I said I can't before looking down at my Dynavox. Then, the other AAC user who used to have one but now has a Pathfinder, said, "That is what I hate about that communication aid".

I would consider getting a Pathfinder, but its keys are too small for me to access, especially when I am nervous or excited, which is usually the time that my speech is the hardest to understand. I wish I could say that accessing my Dynavox is fairly easy even when my muscles are tight. I can't, though. Before having a Dynavox, I had a Vois 160, which had a membrane keyboard; this kind of keyboard and/or its software made the communication aid easier for me to select items from than choosing items using the touch screen of the Dynavox. Unfortunately the Vois 160 did not have nearly as many features as the Dynavox. As a result, I feel as if I take one step forward and at least a half of a step backward each time I get a new communication aid. I especially feel this way whenever I think back to the spring of 1977 when I started using my first communication aid, the AutoCom, because it had big squares, making it very easy for me to access. Since the technology that has created synthesized speech was not developed until several years after I had been using the AutoCom, it did not have the capability to speak, which is a very helpful feature that today's sophisticated communication aids have.

Therefore, perhaps the question of how far the field of AAC has come cannot actually be answered since there is more than one criterion to be considered. However, I feel the question is a good one to debate because I think it might help to keep researchers and manufactures focused on the problems of AAC users, instead of trying to make all communication aids small; small isn't necessarily better, especially for AAC users and isn't the same thing as being lightweight.

Mary Ann wrote again to the T²RERC on July 3, 2001 to expand on some of the issues she had begun to address in her article:

About two weeks after I wrote the above, I began having trouble activating the buttons that I wanted to use on my Dynavox. As a result, it was sent to the company to be repaired. However, I was without a Dynavox that had everything I have on my own for only two days. This fact amazes me a great deal and shows two areas in which AAC has improved from when I began using a communication aid in 77.

Back then the companies that sold communication aids did not have loaners, not to mention states; the loaner Dynavox that I was able to get came from the state of Illinois. The loaner program that the state has is actually designed to allow people to try assistive devices of any kind before buying an aid. However, some people get loaner communication aids so they won't have to be without any reliable means of communication for any length of time, as I did. The fact that the state of Illinois has a program that assists people in trying out communication aids and ensures persons will still have something to use when their own are being repaired shows that these aids are beginning to be recognized as being important to individuals who have speech impediments.

In addition to not having to be without a communication aid for more than two days, I am able to have everything that I have in my Dynavox in the loaner thanks to the advances in technology. What I mean is that the card that I use to backup what I have on my own communication aid was put into the loaner, and with the assistance of a tech in the Tech Department from Dynavox Systems, one of my attendants transferred my pages from the card, which is similar to a 3 1/2 inch computer disk, into the Dynavox that I am borrowing. Being able to have what is in my own Dynavox has made using the one from the state a breeze and eliminated any frustration that I would have had if I would have had to use the loaner with only what was programmed in it.

In view of my good experience with being able to borrow a communication aid as easy as I did, I have to say that I now think the field of AAC has advanced more than I did a month ago. However, when I think that some people still have to use traditional head pointers to use their communication aids and there are no communication devices, at least, to my knowledge that have paper print outs as my AutoCom did, I still feel a little discouraged that improvement takes so long to occur in this field.

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