Introduction

[Susan Elaine Antlitz]

Hello Amy. Your work sounds fascinating. I can relate to the potential of
electronic communication to "level the playing field" because as someone
who used to be extremely shy (often going for days without speaking to
anyone and rarely speaking in class), I can apprieciate the way email can
open up the channels of communication-- now people have a hard time
getting me to *stop* talking!  I realize this is not the same thing you
have just discussed, but it reminded me of the transmormative potential
of electronic communication.  Not only can it provide an alternative
means of communicating to those for whom speach is difficult or
impossible, but in some cases may even transform speech habits.  Just a
thought.

Susan Antlitz
M.A. Candidate, Writing
Western Illinois University

On Mon, 18 Jan 1999, Amy Waller wrote:

> Hello --
>
> My name is Amy Waller and I am a speech-language pathologist specializing
> in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).  AAC refers to

> and they may limit their utterances to a few words at a time.  I am
> interested in spoken as well as written discourse, in particular email and
> internet chat.  Spoken communication between an AAC user and a typically
> speaking person actually seems to be a blend of spoken and written
> communication as the AAC user "types" his or her message which is then
> spoken by the device or read by the typically speaking partner.  The
> situation can be further complicated by the many different symbol systems
> that AAC users use to compose their messages (these include commercially
> available symbol systems created for AAC users and home-made symbols
> created for a particular AAC user).   Face-to-face communication is very
> different from phone communication.  Not surprisingly, many AAC users find
> that email levels the playing field as far as communication goes because
> they can take as long as they want to compose a message.  Unfortunately,
> not all AAC users have adequate literacy skills to use these electronic
> communication methods.