AAC: Writing: Part 1

I can write from my Pathfinder, to any computer with the free programme, AAC Keys, installed.

I connect my Pathfinder to my laptop with a serial cable. The Pathfinder acts as a keyboard. I can switch between laptop and Pathfinder to type, one doesn't stop the other from working.


I could remove the icon overlay from my Pathfinder and use its QWERTY keyboard.


But it's quicker to use the icon overlay. I can spell or choose whole words from there. Spelling is really slow compared to selecting whole words.


It takes 2 hits on the overlay to say or write most words. Icon one selects a word group, like adverb, conjunction, determiner. Icon two selects a word from that group.



Any of the icons could lead to a word group, and many do. But the few hundred words that make up 85% of everyone's sentences, spoken or written, belong to just a few word groups. Some of these word groups have only 6, 10, or 20 words.

The folder labels in the graphic above describe the essential core word groups. On my Pathfinder overlay, I press icons in exactly these positions to access these same word groups.

This is how I talk and write.