AAC Lending

On 1 October 2008 – thanks to our successful tender for the support of an “Augmentative and alternative communication devices lending program” by ESZA Kht. –, the Immanuel Home of the Great Church of Debrecen established an augmentative and alternative communication device lending centre in the Northern Great Plain region of Hungary. In 2010, new devices have been purchased, thanks to another ESZA Kht tender for the “Acquiring and repairing of augmentative and alternative communication devices”.

Communication is a right, not a privilege!

Certain people with disabilities find it difficult and impeding to communicate, whether due to their condition or the lack of the proper method or assistive devices, so it is our task to provide these devices and methods in accordance to their needs and their identity.

Communication is the connection between ourselves and the outside world, thus communication is the means of understanding it.

Communication is the key to human connection.

It serves to share our thoughts and feelings. Human communication is the controlled exchange of human messages. We can use communication to express our needs, thoughts, will and opinion, as well as to provide and acquire information about the physical and the social world around us.

Communication is a basic human function. Every single individual communicates – it is impossible not to.

Everyone is able to communicate, we only need to find the proper form of communication.

Even those with the most serious communication disorders possess means of communication, these, however, are fundamentally insufficient, thus requiring augmentation.

The solution is to use alternative and augmentative communication methods, which makes it possible:

- to reduce communication discrepancies and to increase communication efficiency, as well as to express themselves according to their needs and to the best of their abilities;

- for the severely disabled to unfold their own personalities and to develop an active and independent way of communication using various methods and devices that allow them to actively participate in their own closer and wider environment;

- for the severely disabled to express their needs, wishes, desires and thoughts while developing an understanding of the most fundamental connections regarding their physical and social environment, thus recognizing and forming an emotional bond with those;

- to accept and understand new things, as well as to improve themselves through communication;

- to significantly reduce behavioural problems caused by frustration related to failures in communication, and also to allow them to gain experience in basic social connections;

- to make communication spontaneous and flexible for children and adults so that they can communicate in the widest range of environments possible, while also remaining functional,  rational, as well as understandable and acceptable for the environment.

Our institution provides free service in the following:

- general assessment, the exploration of special needs in communication;

- counseling for parents of children with communication difficulties and for institutions tending to them;

- teaching the use of devices and the evaluation of its efficiency, enabling corrections when necessary;

- device lending.

Device lending is only possible by prior appointment with the given specialist technician.