How Can We Develop AAC for Dementia?

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) methods are used to support people who have communication problems. Attempts have been made to apply AAC to assist the communication of people with cognitive impairments, including people with dementia. Two systems, CIRCA and Talking Mats, took as their starting points different types of communication situation which are problematic with dementia. Both systems have proved to be of benefit to user populations, encouraging further exploration in the field. Such exploration is likely to be gradual and incremental, given the nature of the challenges involved, building on retained capabilities of persons with dementia. There are implications for approaches to system design and development, including the software engineering of new systems.