Low-tech backup

Also called Paper backup, Backup communication board, Light-tech backup

The paper copy every device user needs and most do not have. No battery, no update, no signal, and it works in the bath.

What it is

A low-tech backup is a paper or card version of a person's communication system, kept ready for the times the device cannot be used: when it is broken, flat, being updated, in the rain, in the swimming pool, in a hospital bed with no charger, or when the person is too tired or unwell to use it. It might be a printed core board, an alphabet board, a communication book or a few laminated cards with the person's most-used phrases.

It is the cheapest piece of equipment in AAC and the most often missing.

Who it can help

Everyone who uses a powered device, without exception. It matters most for people whose device is their only way to say something is wrong, for people going into hospital, and for people whose access method is fragile: eye gaze does not work in bright sun, and a switch does not work in a bath.

It is not a lesser system. Some people communicate faster on paper with a good partner than on a device, and a person can choose it as their main method.

How it works

The backup should mirror the device. Same words, same layout, same colours, so that the person's motor planning transfers and they do not have to learn a second system. Most AAC software can print its pages directly. A laminated core board and a few topic pages cover most people; a full communication book covers the rest.

For people who cannot point, the partner does the work: partner-assisted scanning, where the partner reads or points along the board and the person signals yes at the right item. That needs practising while the device works, not learning on the day it does not. A yes-and-no method, written down, is the smallest backup of all; see yes and no.

The backup lives with the device, not in a cupboard. A copy goes in the hospital bag, one in the car, one at school, and the person knows where they are.

Getting started

This week, print the home page of the person's system and laminate it. Put it in the device case. That is a backup; everything else is improvement.

Practise using it for ten minutes, with the device switched off, so that the person and the partner both know it works. If the person needs partner-assisted scanning, agree the yes signal and write it on the back of the board.

Then print two more copies and put them where the person goes. Add the alphabet board if the person can spell, because it says anything.

Where to get help

ACE Centre publishes free printable boards and books and runs training on light-tech AAC. Communication Matters has guidance on backup systems. CALL Scotland has free symbol boards to download. The person's speech and language therapist can print the device's own pages, which is the best backup of all.