Device loans and trials

Also called AAC trial, Loan bank, Equipment loan, Trial period

Try a communication aid before anyone commits to it, and insist the trial lasts weeks in real life, not an hour in a clinic.

What it is

A device trial is a period, usually two to eight weeks, in which a person uses a candidate communication aid in their own settings before a decision is made to buy or provide it. A loan is the mechanism: the device comes from the assessing service, a supplier, a charity loan bank or a school, and goes back at the end.

Trials are part of any proper AAC assessment. A device chosen from a demonstration alone is a guess.

Who it can help

Anyone being assessed for a powered aid, an app on a tablet, an access method such as eye gaze or a switch, or a new vocabulary. A trial is also right for a person changing systems, or for an adult with a progressive condition trying an access method before they need it.

A trial is the wrong tool when the people around the person will not be trained or will not model. A device left in a bag for a fortnight tells you nothing about the person and everything about the support, and the note on the file will still say "did not engage".

How it works

The service or supplier lends the device set up for the person, with the vocabulary and access method configured. The family, school or care staff are trained to model on it and to record what happens: which words the person uses, in which situations, what breaks down, how the access holds up when the person is tired. A short trial shows novelty; a trial of several weeks shows whether the system fits.

At the end, the team reviews the record, decides, and either recommends the device for funding or tries the next candidate. Suppliers in the UK, including Smartbox, Tobii Dynavox and Liberator, lend devices for assessment, usually through a therapist. Some charities run loan banks.

Getting started

Ask the assessing therapist how long the trial will be and where it will happen. If the answer is one session, push for more; a fortnight in the person's own home and school is the minimum that produces useful evidence. Ask what you are expected to record, and get a simple sheet: date, situation, what the person said, what got in the way.

Make sure at least two people in each setting are shown how to model on the device, and make a rule that it is out and switched on all day, not brought out for practice. Charge it every night. If a piece of it does not work for the person, say so early rather than at the review.

If no loan is available at all, trial the free tier. A talking board that runs on the tablet already in the house is a real trial of symbols, of a keyboard, of switch scanning, and the record you keep is evidence the therapist can use.

Where to get help

Communication Matters explains the trial process and lists services and suppliers. ACE Centre and CALL Scotland both run loan schemes. The Sequal Trust can sometimes fund a device after a successful trial. For the assessment that a trial belongs to, see AAC assessment; for who pays afterwards, funding a communication aid.