När det talade språket inte räcker till. : AKK-användning inom Daglig Verksamhet

Sammanfattning: Abstract This essay investigates what knowledge members of staff in day care centres for grown up people with disabilities have about Alternative and Augmentative Communication, AAC (in Swedish, Alterantiv och Kompletterande Kommunikation, AKK). Day care centres are working places for people with disabilities who do not have the possibility, caused of their disability, to work in ordinary works in the open market. To communicate with other people is a human right for all people even if you have a disability, even if you don’t have a spoken language or if you, because of your disability, have difficulties to understand a spoken language. When you don’t have a spoken language you need different ways to be able to communicate, make choices and take part in activities in the community. People with disability are supported, in their communication with other people, if they meet people, teachers and professionals in their grown up lives, who have knowledge of, and know how to use, AAC. To be able to understand others and be able to have a communication with other people, you can use specific AAC. These consist of pictures, computers, sign language or other equipment that support or replace the spoken language in contact with family, friends or staff in the daily working centre. In my essay I wanted to find out if and which AAC were used in the day care centres in a medium sized community in Sweden. For my investigation I used a questionnaire send to all 60 persons working in 20 day care centres. The main questions concerned if the staff were familiar with AAC, and in that case - what kinds of AAC were used in the day care centres and for what purpose. This essay is based on 44 answers. The AAC that were most known and used together with the disabled persons in the groups in the day care centres were Pictogram and supportive sign language.