Lauren+W

media type="youtube" key="fAdEOXD9Tvk" height="344" width="425" In this YouTube video, Ellen is using assistive technology that enables her to communicate, move her chair, and even use a stereo, television, and video player. The only way that Ellen is able to do these things is with this machine. This communication device is known as Alternative and Augmentative Communication or AAC. To communicate, Ellen moves her head between the two switches to select icons on a pathfinder. The pathfinder has icons for speech as well as icons to move her chair and control other devices around her. Ellen can speak by using these switches to select words and create sentences. The machine's ability to control other devices around Ellen, such as a computer, is called Environmental Control. The assistive technology that Ellen uses to move and steer her wheelchair is called Integrated, Specialist Wheelchair Control which is again controled by her head switches.