The AAC-RERC is a Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center that functions as a collaborative research group dedicated to the development of effective AAC technology. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) refers to ways (other than speech) that are used to send a message from one person to another.

 Recent activities ...

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RESNA Student Design Competition Site
RESNA and the AAC-RERC have partnered to create the RESNA Student Design Competition site, with  complete descriptions (some including videos)  of the projects entered in the 2010 RESNA Student Design Competition.

Susan Fager and David Beukelman

Supporting Communication of Individuals with Minimal Movement
In this free, webcast, Susan Fager (Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital) and David Beukelman (University of Nebraska) describe AAC interventions for individuals with minimal movement (e.g., brainstem stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Guillan Barre’ Syndrome, and chronic myasthenia gravis). A YouTube video,introducing the topic, is also available.

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AAC-RERC Presentations at ISAAC 2010
Sarah Blackstone, Diane Bryen, Melanie Fried-Oken, and Jeff Higginbotham presented at ISAAC 2010 in Barcelona, Spain.

Michael WIlliams

How Far We've Come, How Far We've Got  to Go
Through the medium of historical biography, Michael B. Williams, a long time practitioner of the art of augmented communication, elucidates many of the key social and technological issues in AAC today. This free webcast is now available in large screen and open caption format.

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Tech Watch Blog
The Tech Watch blog, developed and maintained by Jeff Higginbotham (University of Buffalo), disseminates information on new technology research and devices relevant to the AAC community. Recently the comments feature has been enabled to provide a forum for discussion on technology innovations.

ACES

ACES: Augmentative Communication and Empowerment Supports
ACES, a nationally and internationally recognized program for individuals who use AAC devices will be held from July 6 - July 17, 2010, at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. AAC users will receive 2 weeks of intensive instruction on skills needed for transition from high school to adult life, plus 1 year of follow-along services.

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Special Issue on Transition and AAC
Writers Brigade Manager Pamela Kennedy, and Writers Brigade author Beth Anne Luciani, both contributed articles to the most recent issue of Perspectives, the publication of the AAC division of ASHA

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Emergency Communication for Persons with Complex Communication Needs 
The AAC-RERC has developed communication displays, a webcast, and other information supports to help meet the disaster preparation, response, and recovery needs of people with communication challenges.

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Speech Generating Device Funding for Children
In this reprint from the September 2009 issue of Exceptional Parent magazine, Lew Golinker (Attorney and AAC Funding Advocate) describes funding sources for AAC technology. Additional resources are available at www.aacfundinghelp.com

Colin Portnuff

AAC: A User's Perspective
Colin Portnuff talks about receiving his diagnosis - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) - and the application of speech and voice technology in AAC. Now available in Large Screen and Open Caption formats.

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Transition Strategies for Adolescents and Young Adults who use AAC
This edited volume by David McNaughton and David Beukelman describes transition strategies to support desired outcomes for youg adults who use AAC. The book features contributions by Anthony Arnold, Sue Balandin, Barbara Collier, Beth Foley, Pamela Kennedy, Lateef McLeod, Tracy Rackensperger, Michael Wehmeyer, and others.
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AAC-RERC E-Blast
The AAC-RERC sends out an E-Blast with information on AAC-RERC activities four times per year. If you would like to be added to the E-Blast mailing list, please send an email to aac.rerc@gmail.com with the word "subscribe" on the subject line.

 

Recent Presentations and Publications

Blackstone, S., McNaughton, D., Kennedy, P., Schwartz, J. (July 2010). The AAC-RERC Writers Brigade. Presentation at the 14th Biennial Conference of the International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Barcelona, Spain (handout)

Bourgeois, M. , Fried-Oken, M. & Rowland, C. (2010, March 16). AAC Strategies and Tools for Persons With Dementia. The ASHA Leader. (full text)

Bryen, D. N. (2010). Communication during times of natural or man-made emergencies: The potential of speech-generating devices. International Journal of Emergency Management, 7 (1), 17-27. (abstract)

Bryen, D. N. (July, 2010). ACOLUG: More than an online international forum for people with complex communication needs. Presentation at the 14th Biennial Conference of the International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Barcelona, Spain (poster)

Bryen, D.N. (July, 2010). Emergency communication 4 ALL: Communicating during times of emergency. Presentation at the 14th Biennial Conference of the International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Barcelona, Spain. (handout)

Bryen, D. N., Chung, Y., & Lever, S. (2010). What you might not find in a typical Transition Plan! Some important lessons from adults who rely on Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 19, 32-40. (abstract).

Fried-Oken, M., Rowland, C., & Gibbons, C. (2010). Providing augmentative and alternative communication treatment to persons With progressive nonfluent aphasia. Perspectives on Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders, 20, 21-25. (abstract)

Fried-Oken, M., Rowland, C., Gibbons, C., Mills, C., Noethe, G., and Daniels, D. (April, 2010). Aging Well with Dementia: Supporting Conversational Skills of Individuals with Progressive Aphasia. Presented at the 26th Annual Pacific Rim International Conference on Disabilities. Honolulu, HI. (handout)

Fulcher, K.R., & Higginbotham, J. (July, 2010). Multimodal AAC Use In Conversations Involving an Individual with ALS. Presentation at the 14th Biennial Conference of the International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Barcelona, Spain. (poster).

Hanson, E., Beukelman, D., Heidemann, J., & Shutts, E. (2010). Impact of alphabet supplementation and word prediction on sentence intelligibility of electronically distorted speech. Speech Communication, 52, 99-105. (abstract)

Jakobs, T. & Chater, B. (2010). Confessions of an Engineer – Insights into Long-distance Assistive Technology Design (full text)

Kennedy, P. (2010). Navigating through transition with individuals with speech disabilities. Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 19, 44-50. (abstract).

Kennedy, P. & McNaughton, D. (July, 2010). The Writers Brigade. ConnSENSE Bulletin. (full text).

Lightholder, L. (July, 2010). Patient Provider Communication. ConnSENSE Bulletin. (full text).

Lightholder, L. (July, 2010). Writers Brigade: A key to plans and dreams. ConnSENSE Bulletin. (full text).

Luciani, B. A. (2010). Woman With speech disability achieves dream: Goes to college. Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 19, 41-43. (abstract).

McNaughton, D., & Arnold, A. (2010). Supporting positive employment outcomes for individuals who use AAC. Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 19, 51-59. (abstract).

Pressman, H. & Blackstone, S. (2010). Overcoming patient-provider communication barriers in health-care settings. Presentation at the 14th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Barcelona, Spain. (handout)


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