#CVI friendly aac

[nonspeakingkiku]

Hi! I hope you don’t mind my asking. I was curious if you could explain a bit about how you use electronic AAC with a vision impairment. I’m also an AAC user and it’s something I’ve wondered about!

Sure! First off Kiku's visual impairment is dynamic (think that the right word), it changes depending on what ever else is going on and its als brain based so its different that eye based visual impairment (which Kiku also has but glasses help with that). Kiku has a reduced visual field (lower vision very bad, perifrials not great some days better than others some days completely gone, more common on right side. Some time visual field narrows to a small cone or when Kiku is focused on say walking and listening to surrounding, vision goes away entirely) the inability to see more than a few, or on bad days, one thing at a time, reduced contrast sensitivity (harder time seeing things if they don't contrast enough), sometimes Kiku's eyes shake, and probably more things Kiku can't think of now. But it all fluctuates, some days have more vision than others, but always takes consious effort to figure out what looking at, easier if look at familiar thing. Hope this helps understand how AAC can be hard.

How Kiku uses AAC is complicated and it depends on the day. On good vision days (or days where navigating more button presses is harder) Kiku uses a larger grid size (several apps, although mostly Proloquo2go and Speak4Yourself recently. On bad days Kiku uses a smaller grid size or LAMP on an ipad and a accent. The accent has a keyguard so Kiku can use it tactically rather than visually (although it is a work in progress). High contrast symbols help and Kiku uses colors to help find buttons too, although how the buttons are colored varies from app to app.

Kiku also uses a handful of tactile signs with partners, and is working on learning deafblind manual (a sign alphabet modified for touch based on BSL fingerspelling.) Kiku is working on getting a set of tactile symbols but only have one so far. And one day Kiku would like a set of those buttons used for dogs to communicate with tactile elements on them. But that would require money and a dedicated space Kiku doesn't currently have.

Kiku is also looking into other access methods such as switch access with auditory prompts but currently doesn't have a switch or anything to use as one.

Kiku uses low tech AAC a lot but hasn't figured out the best solution for bad vision days with that.

Eventually (once have a wheelchair or adaptive stroller) Kiku wants a communication board on a tray with tactile cues on it (braille and/or textures).

Part of what helps is being a multimodal communicator and having access to a ton of different ways to communicate.

[nonspeakingkiku]

Kiku's followers might be interested in this. Kiku wants to get a set eventually.