AAC and iPads

Speech Dude extraordinaire Apophenikos on the "app-ified" state of AAC:

Those of us who’ve been in the field most of that 30 years have typically adopted the perspective of “well, this is raising the awareness of AAC to levels unknown” and “a rising tide raises all boats.” But are we so sure? Do we really think folks are getting some “better deal” because of the 100+ apps that are now available as “AAC solutions” – all of which claim to be The Answer, often supported by little more than some flashy words culled from linguistics and speech science, such as “core,” “morpheme,” “word,” “cognitive,” and, my favorite, “intuitive”. Toss in lots of exclamation points, a YouTube video of some poor kiddo having their face thrust into an iPad, and bingo… AAC in a box! I hear the product “experts” at Best Buy and the Apple stores are now recommending AAC solutions based on their years of experience in the field.

I feel like the potential for the iPad to be a great AAC device is not in the software. As The Dude pointed out in his post, there is no shortage of actual, good AAC software. What makes the iPad a compelling option is that the operating system itself is lightweight, mobile, and yet still powerful.

To me, what would be truly revolutionary would be to integrate an AAC system into the software keyboard itself. Then you could have access to it in every app you use, and you would be on a significantly more even playing field.