Blogs written by Alyssa Hillary Zisk

Overview

2024 Blog Header AAC and Stimming Blog header

AAC and stimming – understanding the role of stimming in communication

Some Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) users repeat the same motions, like pressing the same button over and over on their device. But what does that mean? In this blog, we will further explore stimming and its relationship with AAC.

5 minute read

Understanding why AAC users repeatedly tap buttons and practical strategies for support

The Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) community often asks for our help with strategies for people who tap buttons on the AAC over and over. What might be the reason for this tapping? What purpose might it serve? And most importantly, what actions should we take or avoid?

5 minute read

Busting AAC myths for good

There are many things we now know to be true about Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)—both from research and from AAC users’ lived experiences. However, even with the research showing us certain things to be true, certain myths persist in the AAC community.

7 minute read

Intermittent, unreliable, insufficient, and expensive speech

There is a lot of space between being nonspeaking and being able to consistently meet all of our communication needs using socially expected amounts of speech. Many autistic people, including me, live in that space and use AAC to communicate at least some of the time.

5 minute read

Give your AAC app more personality with Apple's Personal Voice

At the heart of every adaptation at AssistiveWare is a singular goal: enhancing the experience of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) users and communication partners. Leveraging Apple's latest innovations, we're excited to integrate transformative features into our suite of AAC apps.

2 minute read

2023 AAC terminology professionals families Blog header

What AAC terminology should I use? - insights from a community survey

Words can shape perceptions. So, we asked what words people like, use, dislike, or don’t understand related to AAC. Here we share the survey results and our recommendations on what words to use and what words to avoid.

12 minute read

How to talk about AAC and AAC users (according to them)

Words are the building blocks of language, and language is how we tell stories. It’s how we tell each other who we are. Words can shape perceptions—calling AAC a “clinical practice” paints a very different picture from saying AAC is “all the ways we communicate.”

18 minute read

Keyboard, pen and notepad with photo of author Alyssa Hillary on table

Respecting privacy in AAC

Autism Acceptance Month challenges us to examine how we teach autonomy and privacy to people learning to use AAC. Alyssa Hillary is an Autistic graduate student in neuroscience, where they do AAC-related research. Their perspective on privacy and autonomy was so powerful that it needed its own blog, which they tell about in their own words here.

3 minute read

Alyssa Hillary Zisk's articles

Overview