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Augmentative and alternative communication is a compilation of methods and technology designed to supplement spoken communication for people with limited speech or language skills, including children with developmental and intellectual disabilities. The field of AAC has evolved rapidly within the last 10 years, due to a combination of empirical advances from research as well as rapid changes in technology. This article reviews some of the most significant aspects of this growth as it relates to children with developmental disabilities. Major issues within the field, the evidence base available to practitioners and researchers, and promising areas of future growth are identified.

People with complex communication needs who use speech-generating devices have very little expressive control over their tone of voice. Despite its importance in human interaction, the issue of tone of voice remains all but absent from AAC research and development however. In this paper, we describe three interdisciplinary projects, past, present and future: The critical design collection Six Speaking Chairs has provoked deeper discussion and inspired a social model of tone of voice; the speculative concept Speech Hedge illustrates challenges and opportunities in designing more expressive user interfaces; the pilot project Tonetable could enable participatory research and seed a research network around tone of voice. We speculate that more radical interactions might expand frontiers of AAC and disrupt speech technology as a whole.

As speech synthesis technology develops more advanced paralinguistic capabilities, open questions emerge regarding how humans perceive the use of such vocal capabilities by robots. Perceptions of spoken interaction are complex and influenced by multiple factors including the linguistic content of a message, social context, perceived intelligence of the agent, and form factor of its embodiment. This paper shares results from a study that controlled for the above factors in order to investigate the effect on human listeners of a male synthetic voice with an expressive range. Participants were randomly assigned to three conditions, counterbalancing for gender and language background, in which how paralinguistic cues were applied was varied. As the voice became more expressive and appropriate for the context, observers were more likely to describe the communication as effective, but were less likely to refer to the unseen agent as a person. Possible effects of the listener gender and culturallinguistic background are examined. Implications for future methodologies in this field are discussed.

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Digital inequality scholarship has rightly criticized the concept of the 'digital divide' for oversimplifying and distorting relations between digital media and social inequalities. Instead of focusing on binary conceptualizations of access, digital inequality scholars recommend studying 'differentiated use,' which depends on access, but which is mediated by additional factors such as skill. Despite these advances, much digital inequality scholarship retains many of the limitations of the digital divide framework it criticizes. As such, scholars thwart their honorable aims and paradoxically risk contributing to the reproduction of historical structures of power and privilege. This short paper identifies three persistent shortcomings with prevailing views about digital inequality: slippage between 'digital inequalities' and 'social inequalities'; unacknowledged normativity; and a deficit model of difference. The paper ends with brief recommendations for how scholars and practitioners can move beyond these limitations.

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Background Co-occurring substance use disorder is common among pregnant and parenting women with mental illness, but their engagement with and utilization of relevant services and treatment is low. Social media has the potential to convey benefits and facilitate engagement among this target group. Objective This study aimed to explore the reach and engagement of specific social media posts among pregnant women and mothers with substance use disorders. Methods Eighteen posts providing content related to substance use (cannabis, opioids, or alcohol), varying in type of content (informational or experiential) and target (policy-, practice-, or perception-related), were posted in a closed Facebook community page comprising over 33,000 pregnant women and mothers between May 2019 and October 2019. Results The overall level of reach of these Facebook posts ranged from 453 to 3045 community members. Engagement levels, measured via the number of likes, comments, or posts shared, varied based on the type of post content (ie, informational or experiential). Conclusions Participation in a virtual community via social media platforms can facilitate engagement among pregnant women and mothers with mental illness by communicating relevant information about substance use, as well as potentially promoting awareness of, access to, and engagement with treatment services.