Abstract:
Although the provision of assistive technology for students with disabilities has been mandated
in South African education policy documents, limited data are available on the implementation
of aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in classrooms. This pilot
investigation used a concurrent mixed-methods survey design to determine the extent to which
aided AAC was implemented to foster students’ expressive communication in preschool to
Grade 3 classrooms in special schools from six urban school districts in the Gauteng (the
smallest, most affluent and most densely populated of the nine South African provinces), and
also obtained teachers’ perceptions of this process. A total of 26 teachers who taught students
who used aided AAC for expression participated. Although there is evidence of provision and
also implementation of aided AAC in classrooms, various limitations still exist. Teachers
identified an array of factors that influenced the implementation of aided AAC, including those
related to themselves, the classroom context, the characteristics of aided AAC, students using
AAC, and other stakeholders. These factors are discussed in the light of international literature
as well as the local context, and are used as a basis to suggest a research agenda for AAC in the
South African education system.
