The culture of augmented and alternative communication: An evolving culture
Meredith Allan.
The first question we must ask is "Does Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) have a culture?" If it does have a culture, where is the theorectical basis for the culture?
The culture of AAC has to be part of the disability culture, and it has to be a part of a language culture, and we will assume there is also a part of the AAC culture that is uniquely it's own.
The second question we must ask is, "Does AAC have a language culture?" The paper, "The Language of AAC" explores this question and concludes in part "We miss the fullness of language and maybe miss some of its beauty. We use language effectively, sometimes to our own detriment, we cross the borders of known genderlects and upset linguists, we are developing our own rules. We use the confines of the language we are given and explore it. We use the same language as 'verbal' speakers but use it differently."(Allan:2002)
The culture of AAC will be analysed in two areas, firstly, the disability culture, and secondly, the language culture. To analyse the unique part, if it exists, will take several more years.