whitenoise

whitenoise is a creative memoir that explores themes of abuse, mental illness, self-harm, and recovery. Through a selection of poetry and prose, the author documents her life from early childhood to adulthood, dissecting and spreading apart relationships and recurring dreams to find the bones that connect. This memoir illuminates the aftermath of abuse and trauma and the never-ending recovery process. The author utilizes poetry and prose alike to unearth buried memories in order to continue the path to healing

Boston New Media Library

The library was designed with a flexible zone to incorporate both the nature of new media and the designated square footage required for the print collection

Communication Support for People with ALS

Almost all people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) experience a motor speech disorder, such as dysarthria, as the disease progresses. At some point, 80 to 95% of people with ALS are unable to meet their daily communication needs using natural speech. Unfortunately, once intelligibility begins to decrease, speech performance often deteriorates so rapidly that there is little time to implement an appropriate augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention; therefore, appropriate timing of referral for AAC assessment and intervention continues to be a most important clinical decision-making issue. AAC acceptance and use have increased considerably during the past decade. Many people use AAC until within a few weeks of their deaths

Current and Future AAC Research Considerations for Adults with Acquired Cognitive and Communication Impairments

Adults with acquired language impairments secondary to stroke, traumatic brain injury, and neurodegenerative diseases are candidates for communication supports outside of the traditional restoration-based approaches to intervention. Recent research proves repeatedly that augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) provides a means for participation, engagement, conversation, and message transfer when individuals can no longer expect full return of premorbid communication skills and that inclusion of communication supports should begin early. We discuss current research and future directions for integrated systems of technical supports that include low-technology, high tech, and partner-dependent strategies for adults with severe and chronic aphasia, cognitive-communication problems resulting from traumatic brain injuries, and primary progressive aphasia

The Impact of Contextualization and Personal Relevance on Communicative Performance by People with Severe Aphasia

The purpose of this research is to determine how best to represent information in AAC systems for people with moderate/severe/profound chronic aphasia. The researcher hypothesized that people with moderate/severe/profound chronic aphasia will use AAC systems more efficiently and effectively when information is represented through personally-relevant highly contextualized pictures rather than iconic symbols or non-personally relevant contextualized pictures. Data was collected from eight participants with moderate/severe/profound chronic aphasia. Results from eight participants indicated, that people with moderate/severe/profound chronic aphasia prefer and identify personally relevant highly contextualized pictures with greater accuracy than iconic symbols or non-personally relevant contextualized pictures

Using Visual Scene Displays as Communication Support Options for People with Chronic, Severe Aphasia: A Summary of AAC Research and Future Research Directions

Research about the effectiveness of communicative supports and advances in photographic technology has prompted changes in the way speech-language pathologists design and implement interventions for people with aphasia. The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of photographic images as a basis for developing communication supports for people with chronic aphasia secondary to sudden-onset events due to cerebrovascular accidents (strokes). Topics include the evolution of AAC-based supports as they relate to people with aphasia, the development and key features of visual scene displays (VSDs), and future directions concerning the incorporation of photographs into communication supports for people with chronic and severe aphasia