engleski

AAC in Croatia – current practice and challenge

Although many positive changes emerged in the last decade, Croatia is still a country where AAC is an emerging method. This presentation will provide a review of the current practice, challenges and strategies used to promote the use of AAC and Assistive Technology in Croatia. Challenges have emerged in the numerous fronts: level of awareness, polices and guideliness, human resources, knowledge of professionals, etc. There is a limited awareness of understanding AAC and even less awareness of alternative access methods for electronic and non-electronic communication aids. A research focused on speech and language pathologists (SLP) in Croatia, completed in 2012 (Ivšac Pavliša et al), revealed that use of communication aids was rare and that people primary used of unaided communication methods such as gestures and sign language. The University in Zagreb is the only university in Croatia that offers graduate coursework in AAC and a course on assistive technology. Namely, current government policies and social prejudice limit access to assistive technology, access to education and the provision of professional support (SLP, special teacher..) for persons with complex communication needs who need AAC. Students with complex communication needs and their families are still fighting for the right to access information as well as a proper school curriculum. Moreover, speech-generating devices are not identified as a medical equipment and evaluation and treatment by speech-language pathologists are not considered as obligatory for candidates for AAC. Consequently the government does not subsidize communication aids or services provided by speech-language pathologists. One of the biggest challenges has been addressing the language needs of AAC users from a beginning to advanced level, especially for users that are not literate, because of complexity of Croatian morphosyntax. Many multidisciplinary efforts among education, practice and enterprise have been made throughout the country to break down these barriers and advance the use of AAC in Croatia. In 2013, a large project funded by European Union called, "ICT Competence Network for Innovative Services for Persons with Complex Communication Needs" (ICT-AAC), resulted in the development of the first Croatian AAC apps (www.ict-aac.hr/index.php/en/). At the moment, Unicef Croatia is supporting a big programme which addresses the upgrade of the knowledge of professionals on AAC on the national level (http://rain.ict-aac.hr/). E- Glas, a Croatian company that develops assistive technology for environmental control, joined the effort to bring a range of assistive technology and AAC solutions to Croatia and organize conferences (http://www.ataac.eu/) . The AT for alternate access methods as well as speech-generating devices are now available for Croatian families. Further E-Glas is currently collaborating with AAC developers to develop pagesets in Croatian. Current AAC pages sets will be translated. In addition, new Croatian pagesets are being created to address the complexity of the Croatian language needs. New core-word pagesets will be developed utilizing research on most frequently used Croatian Words. The presentation will describe current steps to bring together Croatian and AAC/AT specialists in the region to share knowledge and resources and spread the word about AAC and even to change the current policy regarding AAC topic. Efforts to improve knowledge and exchange information within Croatia, have included: facebook pages, (AAC Croatia and ICT-AAC), establishment of the Croatian Society for Developing and Promoting Assistive Technology and development of a model of assessing and implementing AAC in Croatia. To foster information exchange with the region, work in underway for future regional AAC/AT conference and development of more advanced or online AT AAC programmes.

Alternative and augmentative communication ; developing nations in AAC ; AAC initiatives

nije evidentirano