CALL Scotland\'s new AAC Apps Wheel

Posted by 14 on the 23rd May, 2014

The new CALL Scotland AAC Apps Wheel is now officially 'launched' and available for free download and sharing. Enjoy, and pass it on! 

The AAC Apps wheel is in .PDF format and was designed for display in A3 poster size but it works equally well (only smaller!) as an A4 leaflet. The App names on the electronic version are 'clickable' links, taking you directly to more information about the individual App on the UK iTunes site.

This new 'Wheel' authored by Sally Millar and Gillian McNeill of CALL Scotland, provides a categorised guide to iPad Apps for people with complex communication support needs, who may need to use some form(s) of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).

There are many hundreds of communication apps, and deciding how to categorise them – never mind identifying the best fit to meet the needs of an individual user – is a bit complicated. We define some Apps (from 12 o’clock round to 6) as potential full ‘expressive’ communication systems. Whether text and/or symbol based, these tend to be highly featured, and include text to speech, a built-in symbol library, at least one or two sample pre-stored user vocabulary sets, and an onscreen message bar to allow for sentence/message building.

Other Apps (from 6 o’clock round to 9) are identified as more ‘simple’ forms of communication. These may provide basic, functional ways of expressing needs and making choices, or for recording news or stories. They contain limited, if any, starter content and will be customised for the user from ‘bottom-up’ using familiar photos and pictures, and recorded messages. Others may use the iPad to mirror and add speech output to particular low tech communication approaches such as PECS.  Finally, many are useful for building basic vocabulary and sentence construction skills, receptively as much as expressively.

The CALL Scotland AAC Apps wheel does not include every App available in each category. It shows Apps that CALL finds useful: i.e. reliable, relatively straightforward to use; reasonable/good value for money; and / or that stand out in their category for some reason.

Users may use a ‘set’ of various Apps from different categories at different times – there is no single ‘best’ App for communication. It can be a mistake to jump directly to the most complex and powerful full communication system App, without trialling simpler App(s) first to evaluate ability levels and communication needs, and to build basic skills.

All the Apps are controlled by direct touch, and many (but not all), will also run under switch control within iOS 7 Accessibility settings. A few were specifically designed for switch access, which tends to offer better switch access features, and these are marked in this wheel with small red ‘s’ (beside App icon).