These
are the issues that the members of Speaking
Differently have determined
to be most important to persons who communicate in non-standard ways. The
issues are presented in priority order. Do you agree with these issues? Are
there others that SD should be concerned
with? Please let us know. Contact
us
1.
Education of Professionals who Deal with Persons who use AAC
· Reduce the tendency for persons such as doctors
to ignore persons with little or no speech in favor of their attendants or
facilitators during examination and treatment.
· Example: Teach the police to deal with persons
with little or no speech. Whether encountered in formal situations (such as
court) or on the streets, police need to recognize differences between persons
with little or no speech and persons who are intoxicated and etc.
· Encourage the training of professionals to
communicate with people who use AAC during
professional training.
· Make available training kits to help AAC users
and their facilitators to succeed when dealing with health, legal, government
and other professionals.
Transportation
· Train AAC users to achieve transportation on
demand independently.
· Educate drivers who know little or nothing about
persons with little or no speech and how to communicate with them.
· Make available a training kit to help AAC users
and their facilitators arrange for and manage public transportation.
3. Housing
·
Work toward
requiring provisions in independent living settings for communication systems
that allow AAC users to control their environments.
· Training for domestic workers in communicating
with persons who are essentially non-speaking
·
Make available
quick, easy materials that can help domestic workers understand the environment
of AAC users and how to communicate with the AAC user resident.
4. Attendant care
·
Provide the ways
and means for persons with little or no speech to direct his or her own care.
·
Work toward
formal communication training of attendants.
·
Encourage an
atmosphere where attendants are commitment to their work and hold respect
toward persons who use AAC.
5. Friendship
·
Provide opportunities
for persons who use AAC to meet new persons, some who do not speak, some who
do, some with disabilities, some without, to help to reduce the tendency for
persons who are non-speaking to have only “paid friends” .
·
Make available
social-communication training for persons with little or no speech and for
those they are going to meet.
6.
Jobs
·
Reduce problems
associated with accessing government services associated with employment by
providing communication training to government workers and by providing
strategy workshops to persons who use AAC.
· Help to ensure that government policies that
deal with the employment of individuals with disabilities include persons who
have little or no speech.
·
Increase the
availability of supported and sheltered employment for persons who use AAC by
providing training for both AAC users and workshop operators.
·
Make available
training kits to help AAC users successfully navigate job interviews.
7.
Leisure
·
Ensure that
persons who are essentially non-speaking have the experiences, knowledge, and
specific communication skills to make their own choices of leisure activities.