Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Many, if not most, people who need AAC are still denied effective language-based AAC; assumed illiterate for life; and subjected to extreme isolation and violence. We must secure fundamental fairness and mitigate the multiple and compounding biases and discrimination that those who require AAC endure. We must envisage ways in which people who use AAC can be better heard and live in community with all others. True community is not a dot on a map. It is a way of belonging. The right to community and communication are symbiotic. While our disabilities modify the ways we live, unchallenged biases cripple our lives far more. Communication equity boils down to the societal and legal obligation to ensure that all people have fair and universal, lifelong access to all means of communication. Research is required to determine whether the way we talk about AAC perpetuates the erroneous assumption that people should express themselves and be understood in one prescribed way only. To move toward communication equity, we need research grounded in the lived experiences of those who need or use AAC. We need to work together to bring about communication equity, not for the privileged few, but for all.
Author: Bob Williams
Language: English
Subfield: Occupational Therapy
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: bronze
Award: G4768620300
OpenAlex ID: W4411044775