AAC Research Alliance

The AAC Research Alliance is committed to supporting individuals and programs that are interested in adding to the body of clinically relevant evidence in AAC. We are interested in supporting research at several levels.

• Academic Research

  Academic Research on issues relating to AAC that employs rigorous experimental design is highly desirable. These studies help form the foundation for design, development, implementation, and best practice relating to AAC tools.

• Research Supporting Evidence-Based Practice

  Just as"research informs clinical practices, and clinical practices often guide research endeavors" (Apel & Self, 2003)*, research done in the course of determining effective interventions in clinical and private practice, as well as school-based therapy, can contribute to the knowledge base concerning AAC device use and practice.

• Action Research

  Action Research has been called a "learning by doing" approach to research. To the extent that professionals take a systematic approach to address issues over which they can exert influence, and develop and implement potential solutions, then assess their level of success, the result can be data which can be of value to the research community.

The AAC Research Alliance was created by PRC to increase the corpus of clinically relevant evidence available to professionals to facilitate greater success in their classrooms and clinical settings – and above all, effective communication for the consumers themselves.

*Apel , K. & Self, T. (2003, September 9), Evidence-Based Practice: The Marriage of Research and Clinical Services, The ASHA Leader Online , Retrieved October 26, 2009, from http://www.asha.org/Publications/leader/2003/030909/f030909b.htm