Augmentative and alternative communication on tablet to help persons with severe disabilities

In this paper we present an experience of the application of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) with four persons with severe language (and motor) impairments treated at an adult day centre for people with disabilities. Two apps on Android tablets were tried with one subject who had negatively experienced traditional communication boards in the past and with three subjects who had never been considered before for AAC intervention. After a six-month trial we achieved encouraging results: the ease of use of the proposed instruments enabled the persons involved in the experimentation to improve their communication capabilities, to better express their choices and feelings, and to potentially extend their communication circles. This experience testifies that AAC can be successfully applied to severe disabilities and encourages research in this direction.