Provision of powered communication aids in the United Kingdom

Abstract

AAC service provision in the United Kingdom (UK) has evolved since the first service dedicated to the provision of communication aids opened in 1986. Within the UK, many health and care services are provided via government funding; however, the assessment and provision of AAC and specifically of speech-generating devices (SGDs) is inconsistent and inequitable. The study reported in this paper aimed to collect information on levels of current provision of powered communication aids (the term used in the study to refer to SGDs) by UK service providers in 2013 with the intention of improving future estimates for need of services. A questionnaire survey was designed and data were obtained from 98 AAC services across the UK. Service providers reported the number of individuals known to be using powered communication aids and the mean value reported was 0.0155% of the services’ catchment populations. However levels of service provision reported were highly variable. Although the data reported must be treated with caution, it adds to the sparse literature on the topic, informs AAC service design and delivery in the UK, and acts as an indicative baseline measure for future service development.

Keywords:

• AAC service delivery
• United Kingdom
• incidence
• prevalence
• caseload
• powered communication aids
• speech-generating devices

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 LimeSurvey^TM is a trademark of Fa. Carsten Schmitz, Germany. https://www.limesurvey.org/

2 SPSS^TM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, NY. http://www.ibm.com/analytics/us/en/technology/spss/

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded through a Big Lottery Fund research grant, administered by Communication Matters, the United Kingdom chapter of the International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC).