We've looked at the features of aided AAC devices that strictly relate to how a user can communicate with others. However, that's not the whole story. In this section, we'll talk about other features that impact the usefulness of AAC devices: You'll find that this section is full of questions you should ask about equipment you consider.
1. Physical and Electrical Features
Perhaps the simplest features to discuss are the physical characteristics of any device or technique. These can range from the size and shape of a device to the durability of the equipment for normal use. It's important that you're familiar with all the different options among all the many AAC devices on the market. Most of these features are self-explanatory, so I'll just list the questions that you should ask about equipment you're considering:
2. "Dedicated" Communication Devices
For many years, we had the term "dedicated" to refer to any device that was designed and manufactured specifically for AAC users. Some of these devices could also run connect to computers and/or perform other functions (e.g. writing or printing) but they were still "dedicated" to AAC users. This was in contrast to computers that could also be used for AAC.
However, in recent years, funding agencies (most notably Medicare and Medicaid) have begun to use the term to mean devices that can ONLY be used for face-to-face communication, such as "Speech Generating Devices" and cannot also be used for writing or printing. This has resulted in some confusion in our field regarding this term. More importantly, it has resulted in 3rd party payers restricting their coverage to devices with speech output only (e.g. "dedicated systems") and refusing to fund any devices that can perform multiple functions, such as printing, computer access or telephone access.
a) "Dedicated" AAC Devices
Most of the equipment you have seen so far in this lesson is "dedicated" for AAC purposes. Here are just a couple of examples:
b) "Non-dedicated" systems
Computer-based system, in contrast, can also run other computer software, allowing the user to switch back and forth between communication and word processing, for example. Almost any computer can function this way with the right software. Here is one example of such software:
c) Computer-based systems that are "Dedicated" to AAC
Now some of these manufacturers are taking these computer-based systems and disconnecting some features so that they can only be used for AAC. (This is being done to meet new Medicare requirements and this is how the word "dedicated" is now being used.) Here are examples of such systems that are now "dedicated" to AAC.