Partner-assisted scanning

Also called PAS, Partner scanning, Listener-mediated scanning

A person reads or points to the options and watches for the signal. No equipment, no battery, no set-up, and it works on a ward at 3am.

What it is

Partner-assisted scanning is scanning done by a human. The partner offers the choices one at a time, by saying them, pointing to them on a board, or both, and the person signals yes when the right one comes. The partner is the highlight.

It is the most under-used method in the whole of AAC, because it looks too simple to count. It is the method that works when the device is flat, the eye-gaze camera has lost calibration, the person is in a hospital bed, or nobody has bought anything yet.

Who it can help

Anyone with a reliable yes signal: a blink, a look up, a smile, a hand squeeze, a vocalisation. That covers people in intensive care, people with locked-in syndrome, people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, and every switch user on the day the switch fails.

It depends on a partner who knows how to do it, which is its weakness: the person cannot start a conversation alone, and a partner in a hurry will skip options or guess. It is not a replacement for independent access; it is the floor beneath it.

How it works

The partner presents options in a fixed order the person knows, pausing on each for an agreed time. "Is it about your body? Something you want? Someone? Somewhere?" A yes narrows it; the partner then offers the items in that group. With an alphabet board grouped into rows, the partner reads the row letters ("A to F? G to L?") then the letters in the chosen row, and the person spells.

The signal must be agreed and written down: what yes looks like, what no looks like, what "start again" looks like. A communication passport is the place for it. The partner should say the whole list before stopping, so the person is choosing between everything, not just the first thing.

Getting started

Today: agree a yes. Ask a question with an obvious answer and watch what the body does. Agree that movement means yes, tell everyone who comes into the room, and write it on a card by the bed or in the passport.

Then make an alphabet board with the letters in six rows, on paper, and practise the row-then-letter routine until you can do it without looking at the card. Keep a laminated copy in the wheelchair bag and another by the bed as the low-tech backup. Use it even on days the device is working, so it stays practised.

Where to get help

A speech and language therapist can teach the routine to the family and the ward in one session; ask for it through referring to speech and language therapy. The ACE Centre publishes free partner-assisted scanning charts, and Communication Matters explains the method for families. Scope and the MND Association both point people to it as the first fallback.