$4.75 Million Grant to UB Will Help Improve Alternative Communication for 3.5 Million Americans

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Communication Enhancement (AAC-RERC), a partnership with the University at Buffalo, Duke University and other research institutions, has been awarded a $4.75 million grant by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).

The grant will extend through September 2013 the center's work on technologies that enhance communication for 3.5 million Americans whose significant communication disabilities mean they cannot rely on their natural speech to converse.

Among those individuals are children and adults with impairments caused by cerebral palsy, autism, stroke, cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis, dementia and traumatic brain injury.

The collaborative center, the AAC-RERC conducts a comprehensive program of research, development, training and dissemination activities that address NIDRR priorities to improve and promote augmentative and alternative communication technologies.

It is the third five-year award received by the center.

The center includes researchers from the UB Department of Communicative Disorders, the Duke University Medical Center; Children's Hospital, Boston; InvoTek, Inc.; Oregon Health and Sciences University; Penn State University, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

At UB, the project is headed by Jeff Higginbotham, Ph.D., professor of communicative disorders and sciences and director of the Communication and Assistive Device Laboratory. UB's part of this grant ($602,000) will be used to support research and development on a variety of AAC technologies.

One UB project aims to enhance use of Internet-based devices used for speaking and writing by developing topic-related vocabulary for communication, allowing users greater independence and many more opportunities to participate in society.

UB researchers are also developing new augmentative communication technologies that support face-to-face communication by accommodating the subtle physical and cognitive needs of individual users.

Higginbotham points out that users require portability so they are not tied to their home computers. Some users might not be able to touch a screen directly with their hands, so other "pointing" methods need to be devised. Still others may communicate through the use of linked visual images instead of words. The innovations are as varied as the needs of users.

He says, "I am really excited to receive this award again. It allows me to continue my research and development efforts in the areas of communication performance and augmentative communication devices. These technologies change the lives of individuals who use them, enabling greater independence and many more opportunities to participate in society.

"Our collective research efforts have improved the technologies for individuals with complex communication needs and has advanced the science in our field," adds Higginbotham, who notes that many significant developments in the field of augmentative and assistive communication are the direct result of work conducted by researchers in the AAC-RERC. More information about the AAC-RERC can by found by visiting http://aac-rerc.com.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs.