Don’t Limit the Language, Change the Access

“What if the challenge isn’t the language system, but how someone gets to it?”

That idea sits at the heart of a recent conversation between Ace Centre’s Suzanne Martin and Sam McNeilly about Alternative Access PODD and what it can teach us about supporting people with complex access needs.

For many people, paper-based AAC resources such as symbol charts, aided language displays, communication books and PODD books are associated with pointing to symbols on a page. But what happens when someone has a complex body, limited motor control, or finds it difficult to point accurately with a finger? Too often, the response is to reduce the amount of language available. A smaller book. Fewer words. More limited choices.

Suzanne challenges that thinking. As she explains, one of the biggest challenges for people with complex communication needs is “giving them access to enough vocabulary to express the thoughts and ideas and opinions that they have.”

The conversation highlights an important principle that applies not only to PODD, but to paper-based AAC resources more broadly:

Physical access difficulties should not determine the richness of the language available to somebody.

Access and language are not the same thing

One of the strongest messages from the discussion is that we can sometimes confuse access with language. If someone cannot directly point to symbols in a communication book or chart, it can be tempting to assume they need a simpler system. In reality, they need the same rich language opportunities as everyone else, but through a different way of accessing them.

Alternative access approaches, like eye‑pointing, partner‑assisted scanning, combination access, and coded access, provide different routes into paper-based communication resources, allowing people to access vocabulary even when direct pointing is not possible. For Suzanne, Alternative Access PODD “is an opportunity to provide people with the vocabulary that they need.” Rather than reducing language to match a person’s physical access abilities, it provides a way for people to access a rich and robust vocabulary. It supports language learning, communication and self-expression. The route may be different, but the goal remains the same.

Communication is unpredictable

Throughout the conversation, both Suzanne and Sam return to the importance of presuming an individual’s ability to learn if given the right opportunities and recognising that communication is inherently unpredictable. Suzanne describes one of her biggest learning moments from PODD training, “Communication is really messy and we cannot ever really predict what a child wants to say at any given time.”

Rather than organising language around an adult’s agenda, the focus shifts to supporting genuine interaction and giving people access to language they can use to talk about what matters to them. As Suzanne puts it: “I want them to achieve a longer-term outcome of being able to say whatever they want to say, whenever they want to say it, to whoever they want to say it to.”

The temptation to make concessions

For parents and professionals, simplifying a communication system can feel like the practical thing to do. We want success. We want communication to feel achievable. But both Suzanne and Sam highlight the risks of reducing vocabulary when access is challenging.

Sam shared the example of a three-year-old child whose communication was already outgrowing what her physical access skills could support. Although she wasn’t yet using all the vocabulary available within her PODD book, she was beginning to express feelings and ideas that the adults around her would never have predicted. As Sam explains, “Some of the examples and the feelings that she shared, I would never have guessed that feeling.”

When the team realised she was naturally using her eyes to access her PODD book, they did not reduce the language available to her. Instead, they adapted her access method. Within weeks, her language expanded further. “We know that this is going to future proof her for a few years because she’s going to expand. She needs that language.”

Reflecting on the experience, Sam noted that if they had chosen a more limited system, “I would have been putting the words in her mouth and that wasn’t right, that’s not what she needed.”

A different route to the same destination

One of the most compelling aspects of Suzanne’s explanation is her discussion of accuracy and autonomy. Alternative access methods are sometimes viewed as slow or complicated, but Suzanne argues that accuracy matters too. “I’m really invested in communicators being able to be really specific with their language, so to say exactly what they want to say using the words that they choose to use.”

That links closely to another theme running throughout the conversation: authorship.

“Authorship is really important in terms of AAC use.” For Suzanne, communication is not just about getting a message across. It’s about ensuring the communicator remains the author of that message. Access to a robust vocabulary gives people more opportunities to choose their own words, express unexpected ideas and say exactly what they mean, rather than relying on others to interpret or fill in the gaps.

The takeaway

Perhaps the most important message from Suzanne and Sam is that alternative access is not about lowering expectations. It’s about finding another route.

Whether someone is using PODD or another paper-based AAC resource, having complex physical needs should never mean being limited to a restricted vocabulary. As Suzanne reminds us, our role is to support access to language, not reduce it.

Because everybody deserves an AAC system that meets their language needs, regardless of how they access it.

Want to learn more?

Join our PODD 1-Day Alternative Access workshop intended for participants who wish to extend their PODD knowledge and deepen their understanding of how to support communication for individuals who require alternative access methods.

About Suzanne and Sam: