A setting that allows users to browse the items on the display through direct selection by listening to the output at a reduced volume before making a selection (Dowden & Cook, 2002).

Two low-tech AAC tools that an individual uses to express personally relevant concepts by pointing to line drawings, words, pictures, numbers, and/or the alphabet. The communication board contains the set of symbols on a flat surface; a communication book or notebook has several pages of symbols.

Individuals who are unable to communicate about all topics with any listener. They rely on familiar partners to understand their utterances/messages or depend on others to provide them with the necessary vocabulary (Dowden, 1999)

Selection-set items that are presented in an audible manner, for example through Partner Assisted Auditory Scanning (see below) or Auditory Fishing (above).

Communication that is limited to some topics in some contexts or with some partners; the individual is not able to communication with anyone about any topic. Context-dependent communication is more effective than Emerging communication (see below) because it is not limited to the "here and now" or shared knowledge by the partner.

The computer reproduces messages that have been recorded and stored in digital format (Beukelman & Mirenda, 1998)

A manually (by hands) coded language used by the deaf community of Great Britain (Beukelman & Mirenda, 1992)

Messages and words that are frequently used by many individuals across many contexts. This vocabulary typically consists of "functor" words such as "is, was, he, she" and common nouns and primary verbs (e.g. person, like, want). (Beukelman & Mirenda, 1992)

An access method in which the individual uses a sequence of body movements to retrieve items from the selection set. For example, Morse code is a method of coded access that requires a different sequence of finger-tapping movements for each letter of the alphabet. It is possible to use coded access along with other types of encoding. In Morse code, the letters "S" "O" "S" stand for an entire phrase (Save Our Ship); this is an example of encoding. Many people confuse these two uses of the term "code" in our field (Dowden and Cook, 2002)

Originally, this term was used to refer to any device that was designed and manufactured for AAC users. Some devices could run other software (e.g. word processors) or perform other functions (e.g. writing or printing) but they were still "dedicated" to AAC users. In recent years, funding agencies (most notably Medicare and Medicaid) have begun to use the term to mean devices that can only be used for face-to-face communication (such as "Speech Generating Devices") and not for writing or printing. This has resulted in confusion in our field regarding this term. In this course, we use the term "dedicated" to differentiate it from "computer-based systems" that will accept and run Windows or MacIntosh software in addition to the AAC software.