Designing AAC for Use in Social and Community Contexts: A Scoping Review

Blade Frisch, Keith Vertanen

Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 2025.

It is a right for people who use AAC to communicate with other people and engage with their communities. This scoping review explores how AAC is currently being used by people with communication disabilities in social and community contexts and the impact the design of AAC systems can have on this communication. A total of 13 studies were included that proposed new AAC system designs, conducted interviews with people who use AAC and their chosen communication partners, or performed an AAC intervention. Six themes emerged from these studies that indicate people who use AAC desire interaction with others, can benefit from greater agency in the communication process, can leverage the script-like nature of certain interactions to improve their communication competency, make use of online and asynchronous methods of communication, use multiple modes of communication and AAC content representation, and can benefit from instruction in social communication and community engagement. Suggestions for future research on how to incorporate each theme into the design of new AAC systems are also provided.