Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is an umbrella term used to describe a range of strategies and technologies designed for people with complex communication needs as the result of a developmental disorder such as cerebral palsy or an acquired or degenerative neurological condition such as traumatic brain injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). All of these conditions can cause dysarthria or difficult or unclear articulation of speech in people who have no mental impairment. (Mental impairment and loss of ability to comprehend language may also occur with some of these conditions, but these issues are not addressed in this chapter.) Perhaps the most recognizable AAC user worldwide is the physicist and cosmologist Dr. Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) who is shown above and had a slow-progressing form of ALS or motor neurone disease.
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