Sep 18, 2026 · 37 min · 9 segments
The conversation covers a range of topics related to AAC, including personal reflections, writing projects, technical advancements, AI in AAC, representation in literature, and lived experiences of…
Ali BattyeHost
Ruth JonesHost
okie dokes right and I am prepared I've even written myself little notes today which I don't usually do so um this summer I did have a two-week break almost two weeks um which was lovely but I get twitchy I think me and Ruth have talked about this before that almost like our hobby is work because we we love our work so much so I can't stay back into it after holiday.
So I've just submitted the manuscript of a new book, which is Neurodiversity Affirming AAC.
I'm writing a second edition to my first ever book, which is Who's Afraid of AAC? And it desperately needed an update because it's like 10 years since I wrote the last one or maybe even 11.
And my thinking has changed so much, like around neurodiversity affirming practice, just learning much more around sort of like power dynamics and liberatory practice and learning.
If there's any speech and language therapists listening, please read Warder's book entitled White System Black Therapist, because there's just so much food for thought there that I think is applicable to so many minoritized identities.
And we are all of us working with minoritized identities, like one of those minoritized identities is communication differences.
So, you know, even if there aren't other intersecting identities, there's definitely that one to think about.
So some of the things I've been learning about, there's much more participatory research going on in AAC, which means...
AAC users are involved at every stage of the research, like from setting the research question to narrowing down the focus of the research to think about what's the point of the research, who's it going to benefit? And then like AAC users just guiding things like who could benefit from AAC? What are the potential long term outcomes that we're looking for? And it's just, it is really lovely to see that model flourishing within the AAC world, where in other parts of our practice, that's what we're sort of trying to advocate for.
Yeah, and some really technical things that I've been learning about that have blown my mind a bit.
Computer brain interfaces have moved on, like where you've got a direct, a bit like a cochlear implant, that you've got like a receiver.
It's like a little operation to put an electrode array on your cortex and then like a receiver on the outside of your skull.
So there's a man with ALS, which is a type of motor neurone disease, who is now using that and able to communicate because it's learnt his way of thinking about words and spelling words.
So now he can form sentences just with that receiver, which is kind of quite mind-blowing.
okie dokes right and I am prepared I've even written myself little notes today which I don't usually do so um this summer I did have a two-week break almost two weeks um which was lovely but I get twitchy I think me and Ruth have talked about this before that almost like our hobby is work because we we love our work so much so I can't stay back into it after holiday.
So I've just submitted the manuscript of a new book, which is Neurodiversity Affirming AAC.
I'm writing a second edition to my first ever book, which is Who's Afraid of AAC? And it desperately needed an update because it's like 10 years since I wrote the last one or maybe even 11.
And my thinking has changed so much, like around neurodiversity affirming practice, just learning much more around sort of like power dynamics and liberatory practice and learning.
If there's any speech and language therapists listening, please read Warder's book entitled White System Black Therapist, because there's just so much food for thought there that I think is applicable to so many minoritized identities.
And we are all of us working with minoritized identities, like one of those minoritized identities is communication differences.
So, you know, even if there aren't other intersecting identities, there's definitely that one to think about.
So some of the things I've been learning about, there's much more participatory research going on in AAC, which means...
AAC users are involved at every stage of the research, like from setting the research question to narrowing down the focus of the research to think about what's the point of the research, who's it going to benefit? And then like AAC users just guiding things like who could benefit from AAC? What are the potential long term outcomes that we're looking for? And it's just, it is really lovely to see that model flourishing within the AAC world, where in other parts of our practice, that's what we're sort of trying to advocate for.
Yeah, and some really technical things that I've been learning about that have blown my mind a bit.
Computer brain interfaces have moved on, like where you've got a direct, a bit like a cochlear implant, that you've got like a receiver.
It's like a little operation to put an electrode array on your cortex and then like a receiver on the outside of your skull.
So there's a man with ALS, which is a type of motor neurone disease, who is now using that and able to communicate because it's learnt his way of thinking about words and spelling words.
So now he can form sentences just with that receiver, which is kind of quite mind-blowing.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
