Session 3B - Building Connections through Diversity and Bilingualism in AAC

Speaker: Andrea King (Smartbox)
 
Session Description:
Our voice expresses our thoughts, feelings, humor, creativity, and social style. In sum, it represents to the world our individuality and uniqueness while simultaneously offering a direct connection to our language, culture, and other groups with whom we affiliate. The ability to personalize AAC so that it better reflects how we place ourselves in the world is crucial. In this session, we will discuss diversity-relevant settings, culturally relevant page sets, and the languages available in communication displays. We will also demonstrate how to utilize these settings and set up a bilingual user.
 
Objectives:

• Describe two diversity-relevant settings that can be used to design communication displays
• Identify two different languages supported within communication displays
• Describe two culturally relevant page sets available in communication displays

Speaker Bio:
Andrea King, M.A. CCC-SLP/L, is an ASHA-certified Speech-Language Pathologist with extensive experience working in a variety of settings including early intervention, specialized schools for students with severe disabilities, and teletherapy. She is passionate about AAC and providing education and support to SGD users and their support teams. Andrea is employed full-time for Smartbox Inc.