What is it about?
Feasible, appropriate and robust AAC options for individuals with cortical visual impairment (CVI) are not (app)store-bought, ready-made, or prepackaged. These individuals require individualized, multimodal AAC systems that are carefully constructed by the thoughtful and data-driven decisions of families and service providers. Although ready-made aided AAC systems may be amenable to modifications tailored to the unique needs of an individual with CVI, these changes will not be effective until the team systematically examines the building blocks for successful communication. Many components make up the strong foundation for successful communication for individuals with CVI, including a family-centered approach, consideration of the individual’s specific CVI characteristics, responsibilities of the communication partner(s), and consideration of aided AAC design features. It is up to the team to lay a solid foundation for an AAC system that will be accessible to the individual across time, settings, and partners. This paper offers CVI specific evidence-based recommendations which are applicable to individuals with CVI who require AAC. These recommendations are further illustrated in one family’s personal experiences building an individualized, multimodal AAC system for their daughter with CVI who became a successful AAC communicator.
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Why is it important?
This paper not only outlines evidence to support recommendations, it provides a framework with which to apply the recommendations across domains. Readers will follow one family’s journey to provide visual access to their daughter with CVI and hear how those accommodations impacted her and her ability to express herself more fully.
Perspectives
The family journey is ours. Our daughter Emma was without a means to communicate beyond body-based methods for nearly 16 years, when we finally learned how CVI impacted her access. Applying what we learned from Dr. Christine Roman Lantzy's work, along with her guidance as we developed our daughter's system which we called "See CVI, Speak AAC", Emma was finally able to communicate successfully with others beyond those who knew her intimately. And, while Emma's system appears simple (by design to accommodate her visual needs) and lacking vocabulary at first glance, it is the means with which she navigates which provides a deep and rich vocabulary unlike any other system she had been offered. It is our hope that collaborative research we are conducting with the Penn State University Communication Sciences Department helps others find a way to provide visual access to other with CVI and Complex Communication Needs. We are so grateful to the PSU CSD department for their commitment to this work.
Lynn Elko
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: An Evidence-Based Approach to Augmentative and Alternative Communication Design for Individuals With Cortical Visual Impairment, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, August 2023, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2023_ajslp-22-00397.
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