Designing effective AAC displays for individuals with developmental or acquired disabilities: State of the science and future research directions.
Janice Light, Krista M Wilkinson, Amber Thiessen and 2 others
PMID 30648896WHAT IT FOUND
How AAC displays are arranged changes what people look at and how quickly they find symbols.
Cluster symbols by color or space, use photos of people in real activities, and pair adult scenes with text.
Key findings
01In grid displays, grouping symbols by shared internal color made finding a target faster and reduced looking at irrelevant symbols compared with scattering them.
02In children with developmental disabilities, visual scene displays drew attention mainly to people and shared activities, not to background elements.
03In adults with primary progressive aphasia, visual scenes paired with text supported more target words than scenes without text.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This is a narrative review, not a new trial, so it does not establish which design feature should be changed first. Most evidence measures visual attention, search speed, or motor movement, not everyday communication outcomes. Many studies used computer screens, small samples, or preliminary analyses, and results may not generalize to low-tech displays, very young children, motor impairments, visual impairments, or real conversations. Background color cues and some adult grid or keyboard findings are limited or mixed, so they should not be treated as settled. Motion and literacy features often include several components, so the contribution of each component cannot be separated.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that changing a display feature will improve everyday communication. The review mostly summarizes visual attention, search speed, motor movement, and preliminary studies, and it says real communication tasks still need testing.