a School of Health and Related Research , University of Sheffield , Sheffield , UK.
b Barnsley Assistive Technology Team , Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust , Barnsley , UK.
Augment Altern Commun. 2017 Sep;33(3):181-187. doi: 10.1080/07434618.2017.1347960. Epub 2017 Jul 11.
AAC service provision in the United Kingdom (UK) has evolved since the first service dedicated to the provision of communication aids opened in 1986. Within the UK, many health and care services are provided via government funding; however, the assessment and provision of AAC and specifically of speech-generating devices (SGDs) is inconsistent and inequitable. The study reported in this paper aimed to collect information on levels of current provision of powered communication aids (the term used in the study to refer to SGDs) by UK service providers in 2013 with the intention of improving future estimates for need of services. A questionnaire survey was designed and data were obtained from 98 AAC services across the UK. Service providers reported the number of individuals known to be using powered communication aids and the mean value reported was 0.0155% of the services' catchment populations. However levels of service provision reported were highly variable. Although the data reported must be treated with caution, it adds to the sparse literature on the topic, informs AAC service design and delivery in the UK, and acts as an indicative baseline measure for future service development.
英国（UK）的 AAC 服务自 1986 年第一个专门提供交流辅助设备的服务机构成立以来不断发展。在英国，许多健康和护理服务都是通过政府资金提供的；然而，AAC 的评估和提供，特别是言语生成设备（SGD）的评估和提供并不一致和公平。本文报道的研究旨在收集 2013 年英国服务提供商提供动力型交流辅助设备（研究中用于指代 SGD 的术语）的当前提供水平的信息，目的是改善未来服务需求的估计。设计了一份问卷调查，并从英国各地的 98 个 AAC 服务机构中获得了数据。服务提供商报告了已知使用动力型交流辅助设备的个人数量，报告的平均值为服务对象人群的 0.0155%。然而，报告的服务提供水平差异很大。尽管必须谨慎对待报告的数据，但它增加了关于该主题的稀疏文献，为英国的 AAC 服务设计和交付提供了信息，并作为未来服务发展的指示性基线措施。
