This is a topic I have been passionate about for some time now, though I have posted about it elsewhere, it’s time I make an official post here, I maybe be the first to dis
Ok so aac is kind huge for me, I absolutely love aac and specifically my AAC, recently I was introduced to An aac device that had something called eye gaze which you can use your eyes to select and speak things! I was almost immediately inlove!
This is typically for people with little to no motor control in their hands and fingers but to me it opened up a whole new idea world of overcoming some of the brain body disconnect that comes with being autistic, especially on my especially on days where I'm having a really hard time with coordination, during shutdowns, post meltdowns and post seizures when this tends to be a lot worse, you could also type to speak too or use your eyes that's was the best part! It was either!
This is typically for people with little to no motor control in their hands and fingers but to me it opened up a whole new idea world of overcoming some of the brain body disconnect that comes with being autistic, especially on my especially on days where I'm having a really hard time with coordination, during shutdowns, post meltdowns and post seizures when this tends to be a lot worse, you could also type to speak too or use your eyes that's was the best part! It was either!
I keep thinking about it and wishing proloquo2go offered eyegaze and how much it could really help other autistics who have more of a brain body disconnect than I do also access aac as well or and this could really help out those who use FC and maybe useful for people using FC to try and be able to have access to addition option with FC for those who use it!
*this is not meant to be a replacement for FC and will not work for all FC users but could provide second communication option for some individuals using FC*
We really do need smaller more portable and more accurate eyegaze based aac systems, and or for dynavox to make a eyegaze passed switch/control like the PCEye go. That is comparable with the iPad and ideally bluetooth connected so we can keep our devices safe in waterproof cases but still utilize the eyetracker, additionally smaller tobbi I-12 type series of dedicated speech devices that are more portable for autistics would also be ideal
Unfortunately eyegaze isn’t really even ever considered an option or priority for autistics, I suspect this is largely because the brain body disconnect many of us experience, especially those of us who are intermittently verbal to non speaking /part time to full time aac users) experience is often not well known and not much discussed outside the autiatisticcomminuty. It’s not even something most clinictions are much aware of or really understand in my experience so it comes as little surprise to me that the major manufacturers of eyegaze aac tech would not be marketing to the autistic community, which is a huge loss for us.
Eyegaze isn’t perfect, and it does have its down side of coarse it it is tiring, expensive, hard to get approval for right now and currently most no one knows about its massive benefit and need in the autistic community! The modern AAC tech, while much improved also still needs to be made smaller and more portable S well as more accurate from slightly off angles, but I think it could still believe eyegaze AAC could make a world of difference for many other autistics as well! I think it would be huge if more nonspeaking autistics could have eyegaze as an option!. Eyegaze needs to be made available to the autistic community.
