Opinion: Why I don’t believe in qualification criteria for access to Alternative & Augmentative Communication (AAC)

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A post shared by Halle Demchuk, MSc(A), SLP (@haepislp)

Qualification criteria is ableist, not evidence-based, and restricts access to the human right of communication for kids who need it the most.

Could you imagine what it would be like to tell a kindergarten-aged child, "looks like you can't hold a pencil, so that means you'll never be able to write. We may as well never let you have a pencil since you clearly can't use it." Do we all agree that's ridiculous?

Yet, that's essentially what we are doing when we deny a child access to AAC systems because they aren't matching a picture or selecting an icon independently during the time of the AAC assessment.

My hope for the future is that we can eliminate qualification criteria for funded AAC systems, so that we can get AAC into the hands of all children who need it.

by Halle Demchuk, SLP

Paediatric SLP | GLP-Trained Clinician | Owner of HAEPI SLP