An important strategy in making augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) a success is removing barriers. Success is obtained by identifying and removing any access and opportunity barriers to full use of an AAC device. When evaluating an AAC system, ask these questions: “Is there anything standing in the way of a consumer developing his/her maximum potential in communicating? If so, what are these barriers, and how can they be removed?”

It is important that the consumer has access to his or her device both physically and psychologically. An inability to access a communication system physically can be a hindrance and force a person to develop a negative attitude about AAC, as I did with my first devices. Hardly anybody could understand the machine’s speech output so it was useless to type a message. Close friends could understand my natural speech better than the robot-sounding synthesizer.

There are big policy barriers too. In my last blog, I explained how I almost walked in braces like those that my friend paralyzed from polio. However, my elementary school fired the physical therapist who was working with me. The school had a policy that the brilliant therapist could only practice on patients with cerebral palsy, but not polio. Therefore, he was sadly terminated, and I was back to square one, with boring mat exercises, with me hating school. Although my parents were disappointed – like me – –with this development, they were much more concerned about my education. They knew that I was bright and intelligent, and that I could demonstrate that for others if there was some way – any way – to get it out of me. In essence, they knew that I had opportunity barriers that needed to be removed.

To translate this into AAC, there are policy barriers that prohibit children from taking their communication devices home at night and on weekends if they are owned by a school district, for instance. This restriction not only limits kids to the school environment to talk, but also dramatically reduces the time available to learn how to use systems. How would you feel if you could only converse effectively at work?

Recognition of barriers is half of the battle – just like alcoholics and drug addicts admitting that they have a problem is a half of their recovery process. Denial of a problem, even in AAC, seriously cripples. However, identifying a barrier is a tremendous leap on a pathway to success.