Following up on the ratification of the UNCRPD, many countries have adopted legislation that fosters a more rights-based approach to disability. This involves also a shift towards increasingly inclusive education and the acknowledgement that access to AT and AAC are human rights. However, governments struggle with the challenge to build AT and AAC provision and service delivery systems and to find entry points for reform. In his contribution Hoogerwerf will present the AT and AAC capacity building framework which was produced by David Banes and himself for UNICEF's European and Central Asia Office. He will also briefly report on the application of the framework for an assessment of the situation of access to AT and AAC in Ukraine.

The rapid Assistive Technology Assessment (rATA) is a survey tool developed by the World Health Organization to estimate access to assistive technology in the population. The present contribution will report on the implementation of the rATA in Italy with a view to highlight its usefulness in informing assistive technology systems about the population met and unmet assistive technology needs.

AAC systems are a set of language modalities that may replace or supplement typical communication and language use. AAC interventions may focus on verbal or nonverbal communication, and the use of manual signs or graphic symbols represents atypical development of communication and language. Unlike typical language development, language development with AAC is a planned course. The development of AAC depends on education and adaptation, an accessible AAC environment, access to relevant language experience, and opportunities for various communicative and linguistic practices in everyday life. Much is known about AAC systems and educational practices but less is known about AAC development, long-term change, and use in everyday life.

In 2003, one of the first papers about the experiences of persons who use AAC and who have been victims of crime or abuse was published in the AAC Journal. The purpose of that early study was to address the extent to which adults in the united states who use AAC were victims of crime or abuse and their experiences as survivors. Major findings of that early study of 40 adults concluded that 45% of those individuals who responded experienced some form of abuse or crimes. Furthermore, ninety-seven percent of those who experienced abuse or crime knew the perpetrator, 71% were victimized multiple times and 66% experienced multiple types of victimization. Only 28% reported their experience to the police. Long-term effects included significant physical and emotional harm, as well as loss of property or money. Changes in policy and practice needed to “End The Silence” were suggested. This presentation will focus on positive changes in policy and practice 20 years later. It will also share what is still needed in the United states to end the silence of victims of crime who have communication access needs and who use a variety of AAC approaches and technologies.

In the presentation, I will share the results of the analysis of the problems of preventing violence against children with disabilities and with complex communication needs, the difficulties and challenges we face, the actions taken and the planned measures in this direction.

Communication is a lifelong challenge for people with communication difficulties. It is necessary and especially important to support the possibility of each person to express himself, to make choices freely and in different situations. From this also arises the need to find means for specific support for people with communication difficulties throughout life, which will support and improve understanding and expression through the person of judges and lawyers already names the need for support in court hearings of people with various difficulties. specific techniques and procedures, including DAC. It is essential that people have the opportunity to make choices both in their daily lives and in other specific situations involving legal consequences. The judicial system in Bulgaria, in the form of judges and lawyers, already mentions the need for support in court hearings for people with various difficulties.

The main focus of the presentation is a point of view that reflects different scenarios of violence committed against representatives of the vulnerable group and the difficulties that arise in establishing it in the context of the existing barriers to communication between an adult (specialist/parent) and a child (victim). The lecturer examines the situation of an urgent need for the implementation of a methodology based on AAC for establishing cases of violence against children and students with missing or impaired functional speech. It presents the currently existing methodologies combined with a factual analysis of the advantages and disadvantages in order to determine the indicators that would favor the increase of their effectiveness for the specific target group.

The talk will focus on creating an environment supporting language development for children learning to used aided communication. Results from a review of AAC interventions for children with cerebral palsy will be presented, alongside experiences from a support group for parents of children using aided language and parental reports on communication strategies.

Family involvement is recognized as the best practice in the field of early intervention, including early AAC service. Parents are involved in the process of gathering information, planning, implementing and evaluating intervention. Engaging families as partners in their child's assessment includes methods and strategies for gathering information from families and promoting their participation during the assessment. In the planning process, families and professionals are working together to choose goals based on parents priorities, and to find the strategies and activities that are the best match for the child and family. Parents need ongoing professional support to implement AAC tools and strategies enhancing communication and language skills to the family daily routines and lifestyle. This presentation will share experience from practice on promoting and supporting parents involvement in early AAC intervention center in Warsaw.

Learn about the tool to help speech-language pathologists collaborate with the support team (e.g., educators, family, related services, etc.) as they design an intervention plan for individuals using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The DAGG-3 identifies an individual’s current communication abilities. This information guides professionals in choosing appropriate goals and a way to track their progress. It includes all ability levels – from early learners to more advanced communicators. Activities for each goal are included as well as a clear path for advancing skills. DAGG-3 is the tool developed by Tobii Dynavox in conjunction with Vicki Clarke, MS, CCC-SLP (2023) based on the original DAGG created by Clarke and Schneider, 2009. Informed by the works of Patricia Dowden, PhD (1999), and Janice Light, PhD (1989, 2014).

The presentation will focus on participation of children and youth with complex communication needs as the focus. The first project was a multimethod study was to co-design accessible health information and education materials with and for persons with CCN, their families and healthcare providers. A needs analysis was conducted through (a) online asynchronous focus groups with 15 healthcare providers; (b) semi-structured interviews with six young adults with CCN; and (c) interviews with six parents of children with CCN. Provisional analysis of the data revealed three main themes. A variety of barriers to accessing healthcare and accessing healthcare information were identified, relating to healthcare providers (their skills, time and communication resources, and attitudes), persons with CCN (their skills, level of empowerment, and access to AAC), as well as the format of healthcare information (including level of complexity, alignment with patient’s home language, modality, and integrity). Creative strategies to overcome barriers were also mentioned, and related to strategies to enhance comprehension, expression, engagement between provider and patient during healthcare consultations, and training stakeholders. Health information and education resources that would be helpful were also identified, including relevant healthcare topics. Based on the findings, a variety of resources were co-designed with persons with CCN, their families and healthcare providers during the development phase, and have been disseminated through various avenues, accompanied by training workshops. Materials are freely available on the web. https://shorturl.at/hkoK5

For six years, Annie has been using a gaze control system to communicate, learn, play games. Annie is extremely smart and persistent and uses every free moment to study. Annie attends school classes every day with her eye control system. She will tell the things that are interesting to her. And Diana Angelova, her grandmother, will talk about the support they receive at school. She will also share about the problems and unresolved issues so that education can be truly inclusive.

Understanding and adopting the ICF model way of thinking, enable us, the AAC therapists, to expand the clinical reasoning processes and to set more precise goals and intervention for our clients. At this lecture we will try to match between our knowledge about AAC and the main terminology and ideas that the ICF model is based on. We will try to examine how we, as therapists who works with populations in need of AAC, can help our clients participate as much as possible in their daily lives by looking at the interrelationships between the human components (diagnosis, structure, function and performance abilities) and the human and physical environment, as the model suggests.

In order to increase the participation of students with severe intellectual disabilities and of nonverbal autistic students, we constantly try to create the best communication contexts during school activities. It is a permanent challenge to stimulate their intention to communicate within various groups of students and in different situations. For this, we consider that their favorite activities become effective communicative settings in which they can use AAC for interaction. Therefore, group or individual therapeutic activities such as music therapy, sensory stories, dance therapy, basal stimulation, etc. represent very good opportunities for communication and for increasing their participation by helping them to exercise their AAC abilities in various groups and situations.

Description: Communication, individual autonomy, and independence are the primary focus of this presentation. We will explore how Google Assistant’s integration into TD Snap, a symbol-based communication software, can be a game-changer in the field of Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC). Google Assistant's advanced voice recognition and home automation features offer practical opportunities that enhance environmental control and promote independent living.

Just mentioning the term Environmental Control (EC) often fills AT professionals with dread. Certainly, EC can be complex, but in most cases it doesn’t need to be. Just turning on an appliance and changing channel on the TV is often enough to significantly enrich a disabled person’s life. In this presentation, Dave Gilbert from Pretorian Technologies will demonstrate just how simple elementary EC can be, with hands-on demonstrations.

Angela Pencheva will present her first collection of poems "My Confession". It is published by Kibea publishing house and can be found here: https://kibea.net/book/3298 Angela will be introduced by the actress Yana Marinova.

This talk will share moments of aided communication in the lived experiences of young people who use speech generating devices (SGDs) in their everyday social and sometimes not so social life. Drawing upon phenomenological methods, moments of experience speaking with, or is it though, SGDS will be reflected upon as they illustrate the meaning of these devices in the lifeworld of these young people. Themes of lived relations and lived space will be privileged in this presentation, with the themes of lived body and lived time also showing themselves to be intricately interwoven in the lived experience of being an aided communicator.

Light (1988) identified four purposes communicative interactions fulfill: 1) communication of needs/wants, 2) information transfer, 3) social closeness, and 4) social etiquette. Therapy often focuses on communication of wants/needs but does not teach other purposes. This presentation will provide a brief description of information transfer, social closeness and social etiquette. Ideas for ways to create opportunities for information transfer and social closeness for those who use AAC will be provided.

Individuals with acquired conditions such as brainstem stroke, severe TBI, or late-stage ALS may present with extremely limited movement capabilities making access to AAC strategies and technologies challenging. This presentation will discuss assessment considerations and introduce some low and high tech solutions for individuals with minimal movements.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication systems can meet many different communication and functional needs for adults with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This presentation will discuss evidence-based standards for the assessment and training process for adults with ALS in order to meet multiple different communication and functional uses over the course of the disease. Extension options available within an AAC system to help adults with ALS meet additional functional uses will be reviewed.

The introduction of the ICF-CY as a means of assessing educational needs and the need for additional support places inclusive education at an important transition. New is the long-awaited transition from the medical to a complex bio-psycho-social model, which takes into account all strengths, challenges, needs (including communicative ones) and their interaction with environmental factors. In the full scorecard effective from September 2023. the main component is activities, and communication, social interaction and the mastery of communicative competences are among the main advocated. This brings AAC to the fore and a long-skipped and under-prioritized topic becomes a priority in the assessment of special needs and the implementation of additional support. The current report will present the relationship between ICF-CY /adapted version for Bulgaria/, AAC and support planning for a child with communication disorders.

The introduction of ICF-CY as a means of assessing educational needs and the need for additional support puts inclusive education in front of an important transition. New is the long-awaited transition from the medical to a complex bio-psycho-social model, which takes into account all strengths, challenges, needs (including communicative ones) and their interaction with environmental factors. In the full scorecard effective from September 2023. . the main component is activities, and communication, social interaction and the mastery of communicative competences are among the main advocated. This brings to the fore and a long-skipped and under-prioritized topic becomes a priority in the Cand support planning for a child with communication disorders.

Milena Hristova (RCPPPO Vratsa) - Cboard to support a child with communicative needs in kindergarten - presentation of work on a case Cboard is an assistive communication tool and is a free web application for children and adults with language and speech difficulties that facilitates symbol communication and text-to-speech. Michaela is 6.5 years old and is in the fourth group in the "Banner of Peace" kindergarten in the city of Vratsa. She is almost 4 years old when she has an individual needs assessment to provide additional support. At the time of the assessment, Michaela is non-verbal, has difficulties in adaptation and communication with the other children in the group. Her diagnosis is Expressive and Impressive Speech Disorder. When she was 5 years old, she was included in the UNICEF project "Voice for every child" for direct support and use of Cboard. In the process of working with the Cboard application, Michaela's first words begin to appear. The result of therapeutic support with the Cboard app is visible and ongoing. Her active vocabulary is expanding and she can now pronounce words, phrases and short sentences.

In the presentation, the lecturers will focus on presenting their personal experience and specific moments and aspects of the process of interaction with children in the context of communication through an AAC system. They will share techniques and guidelines from their professional repertoire that would facilitate the introduction and sustainable use of the method. They will emphasize the key function of parents in terms of their full involvement in the topic of the implementation of the conceptual idea of AAC and how they can be supported so that they acquire the necessary skills and confidence to play the role of a significant communication partner. Several case studies of children from their current practice will be presented, with a focus on their progress and the benefits of this intervention towards providing unconditional opportunities to achieve personal well-being and self-affirmation. The speakers will touch on the importance of applying a person-oriented approach in the context of assessment of communication needs and strategic planning of work for children with impaired functional speech.

The team of the Center for Special Educational Support from Pleven will present a shared experience of teaching and supporting students with multiple disabilities through the implementation of the AAC. The focus is on the individual child and his world, which is interesting and colorful. Through the implementation of DAK, specialists can look beyond the child's capabilities and develop his potential, communication, socialization and independence. The benefit of the AAC system for a child with multiple disabilities is self-awareness. The child learns that his decisions and actions affect his world and everyone else in it.

The topic of seasons, holidays and assistive technologies is in support of one of the goals of AAC, namely: Communication allows children to make sense of the world around them and what is happening in it (von Techner & Martinsen, 2015). The talk includes videos from activities with children and youth with complex and intensive support needs, with whom we work at the Emerging Communication level.

In this presentation I will be giving the following: 1. An overview of the Skyle for Windows eye tracker 2. Knowledge of how to set up and use the Skyle for Windows and easily adjust the positioning and calibration. 3. A detailed overview of the Skyle EyeMouse Software including all available options and settings. 4. An understanding of our EyeGaze Learning Curve software featuring Attention and Looking

We will discuss the reason access to the internet is so important for a variety of AAC users at all levels. How to teach TD Browse and where to begin will also be covered and where accessible applications fit in to learning to use the web. Lastly, we will identify the future of TD Browse and the next steps in the development process.

Finding ways to support children with severe physical and speech disabilities throughout childhood requires the combined knowledge and skills of families and professionals from multiple disciplines. Only through collaboration can we reach an understanding and appreciation of factors underlying each unique child’s development. The presentation will highlight ongoing research/practices at The Bridge School in Hillsborough, California. I will share research (a) that shows significant gaps between needs of children with vision, motor and speech disabilities who require AAC and the services currently available to them in the U.S. (b) that documents the outcomes for 13 children who participated in The Bridge Schools Integrated CVI-AAC program, and (c) that focuses on the benefits of using hands-free, upright support walkers.