This Is the IT Factor When It Comes to High-Tech AAC

You are the first to hear it. No one else has. I just closed a 125-item survey on high-tech AAC. Experts told me no one would finish it. You proved them wrong. Over 400 SLPs completed every question.

My SIS members piloted it first, with a completion rate over 90%.

Today I share the raw, messy, hot-off-the-press findings from 381 U.S. SLPs.

One factor rose to the top. It’s the 80/20 of AAC implementation.

Here’s the problem: About half of high-tech AAC devices are underused or abandoned.

Business as usual is not working. Here’s the game changer: The SLP has their own device, with the child’s app on it.

Why? Kids don’t learn language in a bubble. No one learns a language no one else speaks. We need to speak their language.

In this episode:

Why AAC is back-and-forth catch, not “I do, you do”

How SLPs with their own device feel more confident, fluent, and ready to use AAC for more than requesting

Why they prefer general AAC training over device-specific training

The surprise: buying your own device didn’t help as much as having your employer provide it

Access gaps: preschool vs. K–12, and the South (23%) vs. the Midwest (89%)

Why SLPs with more culturally and linguistically diverse AAC users were less likely to have a device

The bell-to-bell policy that matters

My call to AAC companies: companion licenses should be the bare minimum

You’re an agent of change. Roll up your sleeves and keep going. See you at ASHA in Indianapolis!

Join SIS today. My SIS members were the first to roll up their sleeves on this research. They do it every week. Inside SIS, you get activities that engage even the hardest-to-engage kiddos, built on Universal Design for Learning. Ready to use Monday morning. Don’t wait. Join the most motivated SLPs I know.

👉 Join SIS today: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

See you there,💚Kelly