ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one particular dimension of smart dis/abilities and its implications for acoustic well-being: It concentrates on Augmentative and Alternative Communication technologies to explore their significance as speech generating devices and growing importance as means for creative processes. Establishing a “text based” communicative situation with him required the author to adjust the author's attention to the board and in particular to his right arm/hand movements which referred to particular letters, numbers, syllables, and symbols on the board. It is noteworthy that Sascha uses the analogue SGD primarily for close proximity face-to-face interaction, whereas the electronic/digital SGD serves predominantly for larger scope “public communication”. The operational controls are basic; there's no fast forwarding or rewind function available. The process to select, navigate, and ultimately play a video file takes Sascha up to a minute.
