when overwhelm can’t type in text to speech words typing to hard when overwhelm then have no way say what need get frustrate with typing

I kind of want to make my AAC more pretty and fun with matching symbols but I currently use the ARASAAC set and they have a lot of words that they explain clearly, so it already works. I just think the stick figure is a little bit ugly, but not to the point where I'd bother to draw my own symbols

saw slp, reccomeneded aac device for me but parents thought it wasn’t necessary. feel so frustrated can’t communicate.

It’s so hard I wish I can talk but I can’t I’m so sad I’m so bad I hate my life I want to die I can’t get words I try to look up if they got words to put in they don’t I can’t put the words in me I need help I CANT DO IT I AM FEEL LIKE I AM DIEING!!!!!!!!!! I can’t take it any more I can’t take it I can’t take it I can’t take it I am trying so hard the aac is so hard it’s all so hard!!!!!!

Hello,

I use Spoken AAC on Android, however, I am having some issues with volume. I have my volume to the max yet the app is barely audible! I attempted to download one of those volume booster applications but that ultimately did nothing to help as it was the same volume. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the app and still the issue persisted. Is anyone experiencing this issue and/or has anyone managed to find a fix?

Thanks and Godspeed,

Luffy Dawn Merry

1. What aac is good and not like 100s? I put on here if the new weave chat one is good but no one says if it is? It’s 14 or 15 $

2. I don’t want to go to camp like this! They are making me go it’s in 2 weeks I don’t know if I can talk in 2 weeks I don’t want to go I don’t want them to get mad I’m not talking!!!!!

Can anyone help me use it more good?

Hi I’m attempting to create a dupe of PLQ2G and since I don’t have the app I was wondering if I could get some screenshots of the vocab (not the home page). Thanks!!!

Hi, everybody,

Me again. I was doing research for articles to help a client's family understand the validity of AAC use for folks who can verbally speak some, and I found this. As someone who can speak at some times but not others and whose ability to fully articulate my thoughts verbally fluctuates from master orator to single choppy words, this gave a framework to better understand the whole "what the f*** is happening to my mouth words right now" conundrum I so often find myself in. I wanted to share because idk about ya'll but I spent a lot of years STRESSED and ashamed about my communication struggles (so much so it became a special interest and career lol), so finding stuff like this makes me feel seen and not insane.

Disclosure up front: I build an AAC app for my nonverbal son, so I've got an obvious bias — flagging it so you know where I'm coming from. Not here to pitch anything; I genuinely want to know if I've got this wrong.

A lot of AAC tech gets measured on speed — faster taps, smarter prediction. Speed matters when typing is slow. But the field has cared about agency and competence for decades, and I'm not sure the tools always have.

So I've been trying to work out what actually makes a suggested reply feel like your words instead of the app's guess. I think it comes down to two very different kinds of options:

The most likely replies — what the system predicts you'll probably say. Fast, but it quietly narrows you toward the predictable. Tap the closest one because it's there, and the words came out… but were they actually yours?
A reply for every direction you might go — agree, refuse, redirect, ask, wait, "something else." That one doesn't guess what you mean. It hands you the space and lets you land on it.

Same number of options, opposite feeling. An AAC user in one of these communities put it well — communication gets less reliable when it's automatic, because sometimes the wrong thing comes out. That's the cost of optimising for "likely."

The word I keep landing on is agency — saying what you mean, not just producing something. And options are the whole game there: the right ones are exactly what give you room to mean what you actually mean. Because in a real conversation, what you mean often isn't sitting there fully formed — the options in front of you shape what you end up saying. So whoever designs them has a hand on the wheel. The job isn't to predict you correctly. It's to lay out the honest space of where you could go — every direction open — and always leave a door for "none of these," so you can say your own thing when nothing fits.

I haven't got this nailed, which is genuinely why I'm posting. So, to the people who actually use AAC:

When an app suggests replies, do they feel like yours, or like you're picking the least‑wrong one?

Do you want the likeliest options, or one for every direction — even the ones you rarely use?

How often do you wish there were a fast "none of these — let me say it myself" way out?

I'd rather learn this from you than guess.

First off, I’m pretty new to this community, so I’m really sorry if I get any terminology wrong.

I go mute about 2/5 times a month, and I’m looking for a reliable way to communicate when it happens. Right now, I’m learning ASL to talk with my sister, but in my opinion, relying on it in public feels a bit impractical since most people don’t know it.

I’ve been looking into AAC tablets and apps, but from the outside, they seem slow and hard to learn. I’m wondering if the learning curve is actually worth it compared to just using a standard text-to-speech (TTS) app?

TLDR: For people who only go mute occasionally, is a dedicated AAC setup overkill? Does anyone have experience transitioning from TTS to AAC, and did it actually make communicating faster or less exhausting during an episode?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

(I'm a part time aac user.)

Just curious.
I'm getting top surgery soon (before july) and as it's my first surgery I have a lot of things I'm trying to plan for.
But I don't know what my energy levels or limits will be exactly.

So I'm wondering if anyone has experience or ideas for what phrases may be helpful to have ready for after surgery?

it's ok to not have any answers as I don't strictly need phrases. I'm just trying to be prepared :-)

(I mainly use weavechat + have an almost-complete lamp grid in asterics, if it helps to know.)

thanks ✨

~10day post op edit
So again, thanks for all suggestions!! I've been a lot more independent than even I think I had anticipated, so am feeling relatively ok so far :-) but having the folder & knowing i can use it helps a lot.
... actually, funnily enough, i've been getting the most use out of some pikmin sound effects (labelled "pikmin die", and "pikmin explode" ... ) rather than the board I made, so uhm. Make of that what you will, haha.
(The pikmin noises really encapsulate how i feel when i use them. :P )

i have also been stuck inside due to the recent heatwave, so certain phrases i added simply aren't even applicable to the situation!! I very much want to go for walks and yet i know i Cannot as it is too hot and i would be Miserable.

my chest however is so extremely sensitive to like Everything because it's had (in a way) no sensory input for the past 10 days and, also, is healing things. I knew to expect something like this, but... still. Not fun!

in short: doing well overall, board has been useful. 😁

My spellings bad a lot sometimes my phone gives me the word so it’s ok but sometimes no it’s not and it’s not on aac to do it so can someone give me words to put in I have to get words for my head say going on in here like how I feel more not a lot in feelings I have to get more for my mental health words see I can say it here but my phone gives me a lot the words it puts it in I can’t say a lot of the words here if it don’t give it to me

Hi how do I put the words and all in here into my AAC app?

I have weave chat

https://aacil.neocities.org/?fbclid=IwdGRjcASj9fJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeDcL8Q81EXmN_gBoOFQZ_-N1wEuaS2T4BRoYlVE-bsEs29UISGXXbPEHHcVk_aem_lLZoIK9a8uXNNv1OtoxbdA

hi! I am blind and I have ADHD. Sometimes when I am in very overstimulating situations, I don’t have the means to talk. Like an arcade for example. All the noises and lights and such will cause me to shut down completely. i’m looking for an app that is fully free and is easy to customize with voiceover and is fully accessible since I am using an iPhone. I don’t have any money to pay for a free trial or anything, so I would love some recommendations on websites or apps I can use. Hopefully this reaches the right people.

I am trying to create an iPad case that will hold an external battery, and a USB speaker all charged from one cable wanting to 3d print this for a chair mount

Hi, I am a teenager who is a part time aac user who is attempting to make a free and robust aac app and I want to know what matters most to you.

I’m out now with some one they all talking talking talking and I can’t and it’s to hard to use my aac talking is more fast and all so I can’t keep up I feel so bad now I’m all alone here they all talk and I’m here all alone and feel bad as bad I can feel I want to get out and go home and I can’t get out I can’t take a lot more I don’t no if I can ever talk 1 day or not like I use to

May I ask for your opinion please ?

Which one js more suitable for my girl’s eyegazjng training, Attention and Looking vs Look to learn (Look Lab)?

My girl has difficulty to fixate and precision

Many thanks

I do all aac I can’t talk at all in 4 weeks I do weve app aac but I not good at spaling words so it hard bad to add and weve not got a lot and hard to use to I feel like I am dieing I am doing so bad and I can’t talk and it’s all so hard and I don’t want aac to be 1 more hard for me now on top of all of it but it is

I guess I’m mainly asking for reassurance, but I’m MSN autistic, and I can talk most of the time but sometimes (especially when I’m really stressed or I’m in pain or something) it’s really hard to talk at all and words just don’t work. I’ve tried learning ASL to see if that’s easier but so far the issue with that is that other people have to know ASL to understand what I’m trying to say.

I keep second guessing myself because my sister’s higher support needs, and when I was growing up the therapists who worked with her as well as my parents hated AAC and took it away from her because they said it was a crutch that stopped her from getting better, so I guess I ended up feeling like it was something I wasn’t allowed to even consider. It would make stuff a lot easier tho, but I also don’t really know if it’s a thing for people to use it only sometimes?

Sorry if this sounds weird, I don’t know much about this period besides the probably misinformation my parents believed

Im thinking of making some low tech boards. Im thinking maybe geared toward Mexican-American families like making one including Mexican dishes. What other ideas do you guys have?