Open Licensed AAC in a Collaborative Ecosystem

A collaborative ecosystem that encompasses the use of open-licensed augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) solutions and systems has the potential to provide positive outcomes for children with severe speech and language difficulties. This has been shown through a project that highlighted the willingness to provide a considerable amount of teamwork and participation of families and carers involving 124 children with complex communication needs across three Eastern European countries. Participation was based around a UNICEF hub in each capital city. The hub provided support for small groups of AAC experts sharing their knowledge with limited resources and widely varying groups of other professionals, families and carers of potential AAC users. Initial face to face training sessions provided introductory sessions to open licensed AAC solutions and systems. These sessions were backed up by `anytime' access to an open licensed eLearning platform containing freely adaptable interactive AAC online training resources to be translated into modules by participants in each country. The level of content was based on the first three levels of the European Qualifications Framework. There followed the development of pictographic symbol sets to enhance the localization of already available sets suitable for children. Cultural, linguistic, and social settings were catered for within an open-source communication app. Feedback and formal evaluations provided by parents, carers and professionals showed that the benefits to the children were not just in AAC use, but also in their social competency levels, self-esteem and adaptability.