What AAC system do you use?

People often ask me what AAC system I use. For some reason, they almost never* ask me what AAC systems I use (the difference is the plural.) 

This is true in a bunch of different situations where people might ask what system I use. In situations where I can give an open-ended answer, I can explain my actual use: lots of different systems and tools. In situations where I have to give a closed-form answer (mostly to do with surveys and other research), the assumption of a single system or a single device is a bigger problem, because it means I (and quite a few other people) can't accurately give the information people are trying to ask for.

However, the assumption of a single system or a single device for AAC is still a problem when I can answer with the actual list of several things I use. It's still a problem because the expectation of one system makes options like guided access seem sensible: if a person only uses one app to communicate, then locking them into that one app could keep the device locked to meeting their communication needs. But if a person uses many communication options, including multiple programs on the same device (not all of which were necessarily designed for AAC or are necessarily considered AAC software), then locking a device to only one of those programs doesn't sound nearly as helpful! What if I need one of the ones you didn't pick? Or what if I need more than one AAC tool simultaneously? My current record for simultaneous use is four devices at once: three with Flip Writer, one sitting with each of the three people I was at dinner with, plus my MacBook that I was typing a longer response on.

It's also a problem because the expectation of one system leads people to reject options that can do a great job meeting some of their needs some of the time because they have some needs or situations where it won't work at all. Having one program that does a so-so job at all the things I want to do is not necessarily better than having six programs that are all very good at one or two of the things and switching between them depending on which thing I need to do.  On a similar note, it means people might stop looking after they've found one thing that mostly works. Maybe we found a symbol-based system that works, or we found a text-based system that works, but it would actually be best to have both for different situations!

Thinking in terms of use cases for AAC options instead of whether they somehow meet all my needs (none do) also means that situational use is much more common for me than true device or program abandonment. It also lets us draw a distinction between options that we haven't used in a long time because their use case hasn't come up in a long time (like the whiteboard I regularly used during my masters program) and options that aren't ideal for any of our use cases (the free version of Verbally just did not work for me). An option I would dust off as soon as its rare or narrow use case comes up isn't actually abandoned -- even if it might look that way for months or years. An option that doesn't work for any of my use cases is abandoned -- even if I only finished testing it to figure that out an hour ago.

As an example, instead of just theory, here are some tools I currently use to communicate and their use cases:

• Mouth words**: I am a part-time AAC user. I speak for most presentations or performances. I also use it for most one-on-one conversations. Because speech is expensive for me, it may not still be available after a presentation or performance, and it may not be particularly effective even if it is still technically possible.
  
  
• Flip Writer: In most face to face settings, I want to show people what I typed without speech generation. Flip Writer flips what I type and makes it bigger while I'm writing, in any language I have a system keyboard for. It has speech generation, but the speech generation usually only works in English. I have not figured out the pattern for the occasional times that Flip Writer has done speech generation in Mandarin for me.
  
  
• Proloquo4Text: When I am giving a presentation with AAC, saved phrases are important and I probably want speech generation. Presentations where I will be standing and moving around the room are my main use case for Proloquo4Text on my iPad. I use Proloquo4Text on my Mac when I want speech generation in a video call, for seated presentations, or when doing certain kinds of scenes from Augmentative and Alternative Improvisation. 
  
  
• Proloquo: I use this for Augmentative and Alternative Improvisation. I don't use it for my personal communication needs off-stage.
  
  
• Chat functions: Chat functions in video calls aren't designed for AAC per se, but if I'm in an environment where people actually pay attention to the chat, I tend to prefer this to using speech generation on video calls. The more people there are in a video call, the more likely I am to need to use the chat as opposed to being able to coordinate listening and turn-taking and deciding what to say and speech all at once.
  
  
• Projectors: Sometimes, I am in an environment where people's statements are being captioned for access reasons. (More environments should do this!) Many real-time captioners, especially the automated ones, struggle with AAC voices. Other times, I am in an environment with people who may not be used to AAC voices -- like my neuroscience classmates in graduate school. Projecting my actual screen means that my exact words are available visually. I also tend to prefer not to use speech generation with my AAC, both for gender reasons and for turn-taking reasons: I have the unusual preference of not treating my typing/composing as part of me talking, both in terms of whether you're interrupting me and in terms of whether I'm interrupting you. (It's only fair if it goes both ways!)
  
  
• Word processing software: If I don't need speech generation, then a projector is getting used with a word processor document, not Proloquo4Text, and then I'm making the font large. I'll also use word processing software on my computer to type longer responses where the speed increase from working with a physical keyboard matters, or if I need more AAC devices at once than I have iDevices with me.
  
  
• White board and marker: If I'm in a room that has a white board, doing an activity where being close to the white board is reasonable, writing on that board with a marker is likely to be my preference! This use case doesn't come up nearly as often now as it did when I was working on my masters in math, but it's still a true preference when it comes up.
  
  
• Pen and paper: This is distinct from white board and marker for three main reasons. First, the white board gives a stronger "I am composing a message!" signal than pen and paper does in many circumstances. Second, pen and paper is more portable than a white board -- if I'm planning on pen and paper, I'm likely to have a pocket full of index cards. Finally, my white board handwriting is significantly different from (more legible and less painful than) my pen and paper handwriting. I mostly use pen and paper in environments where electronics should ideally not be used (chemistry labs, animal research labs), where space is a serious issue, where leaving my message with the person is valuable (other teaching environments), if it's too bright for someone to realistically read my screen, or if my electronics have dead/nearly dead batteries.
  
  
• eSpeak: If I need speech generation in Mandarin Chinese, this is my go-to. I am 100% annoyed about its inability to detect which pronunciation should be used for characters which are pronounced differently based on context. However, this problem is not unique to eSpeak or Mandarin: English-language AAC software tends to have the same problem with words like "read" and "live."
  
  
•  EDIT: Added to post on June 23, 2025; added to rotation of AAC systems in April 2025. Weave Chat AAC: If I need speech generation in Mandarin Chinese and don't want to carry my whole Windows laptop for it, Weave Chat AAC on my iPad or iPhone has joined the list of options. It also gets the 旅行/银行 pronunciation change for 行 correct and can technically be made to read Chinese text in the Chinese voice and English text in the English voice without a single utterance -- despite not actually claiming to support Chinese. 
  
  
• Texting/email/messenger systems: Tools designed for asynchronous text-based communication are still designed for text-based communication! I can use them to communicate regardless of the current status of my mouth word. 

 

This is a list, in no particular order, of eleven twelve communication options. Admittedly, only three four of them are actually designed for AAC, and one of them is really only used in combination with others. Still, this is very much not a combination where I could give a singular answer of what AAC system I use.

 

 

* I did say almost, and I think the exceptions are important. So here are the ones I know of:

• The survey this poster is based on did ask about the use of multiple tools for AAC. It's not really addressed in the poster itself, which focused on whether the communication participation item bank (CPIB) reflects experiences of intermittent, unreliable, insufficient, and expensive speech, but the survey did cover it.
  
• When CommunicationFIRST is involved in a survey that asks how we communicate, it's been a check-multiple question that includes a fill-in 'other' category. Spoken language makes the list, too! 
• The Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Peer Support Project has a poster about this type of result; most AAC users reported using 5-10 methods. I believe the 11 things I list in this post would condense into 5 items on that survey.
  
• Bridging the Social & Technical Divide in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Applications for Autistic Adults supported listing multiple options. Every participant listed multiple options for their current AAC, most including multiple options that were designed for AAC. I did give feedback on the questions. I don't remember if letting people pick multiple options to describe their current AAC was one of my suggestions.
  
• This study, sponsored by Tobii Dynavox about the impacts of AAC in Sweden, logically must have supported multiple selection on both AAC hardware and software for the numbers in the report to work -- both hardware and software numbers add up to well over 100%. 
  

** Based on the results of our terminology survey, "mouth words" is a term to think before using. As a part-time AAC user describing my own use of spoken language: I have thought and yes I do want to use the term that makes the option of spoken language sound a bit more marked or weird.

Purimgifts 2024 Dear Creator

Dear Creator,

First off, thank you!

For Tamora Pierce, I've been interested in Eleni Cooper's backstory for a long time. I also love future!fic where Kel and Alanna get to Actually Have a relationship or where either or both of them get to interact with future girl pages & squires. Emelan is also great but I have fewer Specific Ideas. 

For the Divergent series -- I love Tris. I love Tori. I love the Dauntless girls in general. I have an extremely antagonistic relationship with the canonical framing of what Divergence is as of book 3. Like, published an academic paper about it level of antagonism: Pulling the Rug Out From Under (Neuro)Divergence in the Divergent Universe. So definitely feel free to chuck as much of book 3 into the woodchipper as you want.

I tend to read Alanna (Tortall), Kel (Tortall), Tris (both Emelan and Divergent), and Dairine (Young Wizards) as autistic. You're welcome to use or ignore that as you wish :)

I enjoy the other fandoms but don't have a ton to say about specifics for them. Crossovers between any number of my requested fandoms are Absolutely Fine, if a crossover idea strikes your fancy. If the fandom (including recursive fandoms) is in my bookmarks or is something I've written for/had crossover elements with you can safely assume that crossover/fusion including that fandom is OK as well. 

(Harry Potter is another one where I have an Antagonistic Relationship with canon. Revolutionary Arc (kitsunerei88) versions of Kel and/or Alanna are Explicitly Definitely Fine. I didn't request Harry Potter in general because I don't want pure Potter fic, but both Rigel Black Chronicles and Revolutionary Arc recursive fics are welcome (and specific fusions with Tortall lol)! I have a soft spot for Jewish Kowalski's fics.)

Cheers,

Alyssa

One Last Autistics Speaking Day

I actually don't remember the start of Autistics Speaking Day (I'd just started my freshman year of college), but I've read about it. 

I've participated a few times.

I helped with the Tumblr for it, I think 2014-2016? 

But as time moves on, the ways people engage in communities have changed. Yahoo groups were before my time. I began engaging in the age of blogs. I saw #AutChat start. I think we're in the age of social media, now, more so than stand-alone blogs.

I'm not sure that's a good thing, but I think it's true. Facebook groups are where I'm most active, now. 

I'm still speaking. Just... not usually orally, and not usually here. 

(It's also relevant that I've been writing in places that aren't blogs or social media, but that's more the academic side of things than the everyday.)

The Intersectional Infinity Summit

Today, I presented at the Intersectional Infinity Summit. Twice, actually. 

First, I talked about "Exploring AAC as a Student & Educator--Communication Access & Accommodation." Then, I was on the panel, Why Autistic Acceptance is Essential. Spoken language was working for me at the first presentation, but not at the panel, which I think is kind of funny because it meant I used AAC for the presentation that wasn't about AAC. 

Because I used AAC for the panel, I have a record of everything I said during it. That's below, but slightly out of context: 

My name is Alyssa. My pronouns are they, them, theirs. I am a white human with dark brown hair in front of a blurred background.

 I am at yes underscore that too on Twitter. I can speak some of the time but not all of the time. I use augmentative and alternative communication when speech does not meet my needs.

I am definitely autistic and aphantasiac. I may be neurodivergent in other ways too.

If a question is addressed specifically to me, please wait. If it is addressed to multiple panelists, someone else can go first while I type.

I sometimes call April “autistic hell month.”

I do my best to ignore April. Last year my dissertation defense in April kept me busy. I could not pay too much attention to Autistic hell month because I was too busy trying to become Dr. Zisk.

This year I have a survey active during April so I do not get to ignore it. We started sharing it before April because I knew many autistic people would be too tired to participate once April got underway.

(BTW, the survey: Words matter. What words do you prefer when talking about AAC and the people that use it? Fill in this survey and tell us your preferences. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3NMXCHG
You can also help by sharing the link to the survey.)

 

If you are thinking about doing an awareness event but do not know where to find autistic experts to help you do it right or do not have the budget to hire one, remember that there is the option of Not Doing An Event.

 

I prefer resources that treat neurodivergent characters as human characters who do things for human reasons. Learning to understand the actions of different others and their reasons through stories is possible, if the stories give reasons beyond 'because they are broken in this named way.'

If you read a story about a person who acts for reasons, it’s easier to understand that story if you 1) might have similar reasons for action, and 2) would get similar effects from  similar actions. Both conditions can be violated in cross-cultural communication and in cross-neurotype communication, but you can still try.

 

No amount of evidence that an intervention can achieve a goal I do not have will magically turn into evidence that it can achieve the goals I do have.

 

I think about connections between cross-neurotype stuff and cross-cultural stuff: we can learn how to do cross-neurotype communication better from the parts of cross-cultural communication that are done well. And we can see that the problems are not unique to neurodivergent people.

I noticed overlap between my experiences studying abroad and my experiences as an autistic person. However, I got more leeway for my differences when studying abroad than when people assumed it was all about autism. This is common for white neurodivergent people.

We know we're different. You get a say in how we understand that difference, but trying to pretend we're the same won't go well.

Casual Representation Matters

For a long time, I didn't think representation in fiction affected me the same way it affects most people. I intellectually understood that it mattered, and why, but I didn't fully get it. I'd read books with protagonists who were boys and protagonists who were girls (and protagonist teams that had both), and it didn't make much of a difference to me. I admittedly had (and still have) a soft spot for stories where a girl passed herself off as a boy, like Alanna, then of Trebond, from Tamora Pierce's Tortall universe, but there wasn't any great reaction to protagonists who were "like me".

Probably part of this was that most autistic characters written by non-autistic authors are really stereotypical. Definitely part of this was that I'd never actually read a story with a protagonist of my gender. Ever.

By which I mean, I'm non-binary. Reading a story about girls isn't actually representing me, no matter how many people mistake me for a girl.

Then I read Ninefox Gambit, The Raven Strategem, and Revenant Gun.

On top of the plots, which, yes good, these books have casual trans representation. There is an important minor character who uses they/them pronouns, and it's not considered noteworthy that they do. There are plenty of things that are noteworthy about this absolutely terrifying human, but in-universe, their pronouns are just a casual thing.

I actually started crying when I first saw Zehun referred to as a they.

There's also a trans guy in the story whose transness is, again, not a big deal in-world. We know about it because we see him binding (or undoing his binder before bed? I don't totally remember.) That's literally the only reference, but it tells us that yes, there are trans people in this universe. Many (perhaps most?) get surgery, but there are still trans people who bind.

He's a man and I'm not, but again, I cried. Here's a character binding and also being very important to the story for reasons that have nothing to do with his being trans.

When we talk about casual representation, with trans characters in stories that aren't about being trans, this is what we mean. (And yes, I'm aware of some irony in this post being about how they are trans. Representation matters, so I'm going to tell y'all the characters are, in fact, trans. Zehun is like me. I needed that.) There's enough information for me to know these characters are trans. But the story isn't about gender. It's about oppressive interstellar empires and living within (or upending) them. With trans people in it. Their world isn't one I especially want to live in, but it's one that recognizes people like me exist. That means something.