Audio-described transcript
Fiona Lawton:
Audio description: A woman with dark hair, blue eyes and a red, orange and black dress. She is standing in a foyer with trees in the background. While talking on camera, Fiona demonstrates communication boards, including one developed by Queensland Health. She also demonstrates Key Word Sign.
Transcript: Complex communication disabilities can involve people who aren’t able to speak or need to receive information in different ways. So they can use a range of tools to help them communicate and help them receive information. It might be easy read tools, but also might be communication boards, chat boards and some high-tech devices like an app on your mobile phone.
A lot of people with intellectual disability can have a communication disability but people without intellectual disability can also have some speech production challenges that might just make it a little bit harder for people to be able to be understood and to express their desires, their wishes and their needs.
A communication board can be a low-tech thing such as symbols on a page that people can point to express their wishes or to have a conversation. So, another example, could be a communication board used to access health - to talk about how you’re feeling, if you’ve got an injury etc. So this one’s been developed by Queensland Ambulance Service and the Queensland Government around emergency health care access. Some people use what’s called a high-tech device which is like a communication board but it’s built into an app and it can be hosted on a mobile phone can be hosted on an ipad and again, just functions in a way that the person can express their wishes, their dreams, their needs, their ideas to others.
If I can encourage people just to do one thing it’s to try. It’s to try to use all the tools or techniques or strategies that are available. They may be chat boards or communication boards or for some things, for some people it may be as simple as Key Word Sign which is sign language that is used for people with intellectual disability that is simple to use, uses natural gesture and something as ‘hi, how are you? It’s great to see you, I’m happy that you’re here.’