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Many Cultures, One Dream: Communication without Barriers
2010 Online Collection: Writing and Videos
Awareness happens when you share a story with someone . . .
For the October 2010 AAC* Awareness Month, the International AAC Awareness task force set the theme “Many Cultures, One Dream: Communication without Barriers.” This theme was chosen to highlight the various ways that people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) overcome barriers to communication. All people wish to communicate, to understand, and to be understood. Many barriers can make that difficult. People may not know each other or may use different languages, come from different cultures, have difficulty speaking, need access to AAC, or may not understand how AAC works. Once the barriers to real communication are gone, people from different worlds of experience can get to know and understand each other.
We invited people who communicate using AAC to share their writings and videos about using AAC and overcoming barriers. Entries were received from Canada, Cyprus, France, the United Kingdom, the United States. This year’s additions to the online collection include a romantic tale, essays, core word Power Point pages with speech output, and numerous informational and advocacy videos. We hope you will read, watch, enjoy and share this collection. Please help these messages about the importance of communication and writing reach more people around the world. Many people are still waiting for access to technology, training, and ongoing supports to communicate effectively.
Many Stories, One Voice—the voice of AAC*
2008 Writing Collection: Stories, Essays, Poems, Songs
Awareness happens when you share a story with someone . . .
In 2008, the International AAC Awareness task force of ISAAC invited people who use AAC to contribute to a new online collection: Many Stories, One Voice—the voice of AAC. We encouraged people who use AAC at all ages and at all writing levels to participate by working on their writing skills and showing the world that people use AAC not only to communicate but also to write. We received over 100 entries from countries around the world: Australia, Canada, China, Cyprus, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The rich and diverse submissions from AAC users aged 4 to 65 included stories, poems, essays and a song which were told through text, symbols, drawings and photos. People wrote independently or worked with friends, family, therapists, teachers or others in their writing process.
The writings include personal stories and real life events and creative stories about action and adventure, animals, friends, fantasy, and science fiction. These writings provided the foundation of our unique online collection by people who use AAC, a collection that shows the world the importance of AAC and literacy for all. We invite you to read and share the writings in this remarkable collection. Please help us to spread the word that literacy is important for everyone. People use AAC to speak and to write.
* AAC means Augmentative & Alternative Communication – other ways to speak and write for people with speech impairments or disabilities – like electronic talking aids, computers, boards and books with pictures, words and letters, Talking Mats, Communication Passports, eye-gaze, partner-assisted scanning, facilitated communication training, gesture and sign language.
Many Methods, One Goal: To Communicate
2009 Online Collection: Stories, Essays, Poems, Videos, Multimedia
Awareness happens when you share a story with someone . . .
For October 2009, the International AAC* Awareness Month task force chose a theme that highlighted the variety of ways in which people communicate using AAC: “Many Methods, One Goal: To Communicate”. People of all ages and writing levels who use AAC were invited to work on their writing skills while teaching the world about AAC. The task force was pleased to receive stories from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Cyprus, Dubai-United Arab Emirates, France, India, Italy, United Kingdom and the United States. The collection expanded to include videos and multimedia entries in addition to written stories, poems, and essays. Writers using AAC told about many ways they communicate depending on the setting and situation.
All the writings taken together in many formats provide a rich and extremely valuable demonstration of many ways to communicate in addition to speech. The 2009 Collection provides a remarkable resource to educate people around the world about AAC. Many individual stories were outstanding in explaining the importance of communication, in describing or showing the many ways people communicate using AAC, and in telling about the understanding that comes from communication. We invite you to read, watch and share these stories. Please help spread the word about the many ways in which people communicate and about the urgency of assuring that everyone has effective ways to communicate.
* AAC means Augmentative & Alternative Communication – other ways to speak and write for people with speech impairments or disabilities – like electronic talking aids, computers, boards and books with pictures, words and letters, Talking Mats, Communication Passports, eye-gaze, partner-assisted scanning, facilitated communication training, gesture and sign language.