From the press release (blockquotes omitted): Don Johnston, the assistive technology developer known for its literacy-based programs for individuals with disabilities, just released Improv™, its new AAC software at the 2012 Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conference in Orlando, FL. Improv gives AAC users new options to engage in faster, impromptu and more meaningful conversations. The technology brings a whole new approach to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and is designed for individuals who are non-verbal, but have some literacy skills and beginning concepts of letters. Improv will significantly increase a user's...

As part of its show interviewing Steve Jobs’s biographer, CBS’s 60 Minutes took a good look at the way iPad apps can help autistic people communicate. (We covered this in June of last year.) The video segment is 13 minutes long, but for people who don’t have that much time 60 Minutes also posted the script in the form of an article. The story covers both adults and children, and shows ways that the iPad provides communication tools to let parents and teachers learn things about autistic children that they never knew before. One ten-year-old autistic child was thought...

It turns out that the iPad is not just good for consuming media for the average person—parents of autistic children are finding it has a considerable impact on their childrens’ communication patterns and abilities. Shannon Des Roches Rosa, the mother of an autistic 9-year-old, has written a blog post documenting how an iPad she won in a raffle is proving to be a great tool for bringing out greater independence and new skills in her son Leo. After Leo spent five minutes with his iPad, I realized that any assumptions I had about it being...