AAC in the Cloud

Money, sex, and politics are discussions that don't belong at the dinner table, but they do belong in the speech room. Let's talk about how AAC devices need to be edited and straight-up redesigned to support marginalized AAC users wholly throughout their lives!

All parents teach their children to communicate. Without classes or workshops or the direction of a specialist, moms, dads, and caregivers teach language. Yet, when we look at a young (or older) child who is not able to communicate fully using spoken language we become afraid. We don’t know where to start or what to do. Advice varies and everyone has an opinion. This session will focus on looking at the skills all parents draw upon to teach their children to communication and harnessing those skills to teach your child with complex communication needs.

Special Education Departments continue to be asked to do more with less. Nationwide, districts are faced with less resources, teachers, staff, and time, but are simultaneously tasked with an increase of heterogeneous groups of students, including those with Assistive Technology needs (including AAC needs), and documentation. Communication is a right. How can districts ensure that every students’ AAC needs are being addressed and not being lost in the shuffle? This session will examine how districts and organizations can leverage CoughDrop’s cloud technology to provide personalized AAC services to greater amounts of students. This session will: Overview the CoughDrop Collab Organization and Management Tool and Resources Explore CoughDrop’s remote management options of district licenses and student and staff users from a central dashboard Investigate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies to integrate CoughDrop’s Individual, Classroom, and Site Licensing options into district initiatives Examine CoughDrop’s integrated features for IEP AAC Goal automated tracking and data reports Discuss CoughDrop privacy controls for AAC teams