Forum | May 01, 1999Forum: Specialty Recognition Krista M. Wilkinson Author Affiliations & Notes Krista M. Wilkinson Shriver Center for Mental Retardation © 1999 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Article Information Augmentative & Alternative Communication / Forum Forum | May 01, 1999 Forum: Specialty Recognition SIG 12 Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, May 1999, Vol. 8, 13. doi:10.1044/aac8.2.13 SIG 12 Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, May 1999, Vol. 8, 13. doi:10.1044/aac8.2.13 View Article Figures Tables PDF PDF Supplemental Data Supplements Multimedia Share Email Twitter Facebook Pinterest Tools Get Citation Citation Wilkinson, K. M. (1999). Forum: Specialty Recognition. Perspect Augment Altern Commun, 8(2), 13. doi: 10.1044/aac8.2.13. Download citation file: RIS (Zotero) EndNote BibTex Medlars ProCite RefWorks Reference Manager © 2018 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association × Alerts User Alerts You are adding an alert for: Forum: Specialty Recognition You will receive an email whenever this article is corrected, updated, or cited in the literature. You can manage this and all other alerts in My Account The alert will be sent to: Confirm × Sign In or Create a free account to receive alerts. × Specialty recognition for AAC is an important area concerning all ASHA members, and particularly Division 12. Our specialty recognition committee is taking another look at the issues and plan to report their findings to the membership later this year. As they go about their task I would like to comment on how specialty recognition might relate to changes occurring in ASHA more broadly. For instance, it was recently announced that AAC will not be assigned a separate review committee with individual listings in the 1999 ASHA Convention. Instead, it will be subsumed under one of the other topic areas.* This change should be of interest to all Division 12 members. On the surface, the change is a potential setback to recognition of the unique role of augmented language services for individuals with disabilities. However, perhaps this merging of AAC could provide an opportunity for division members to integrate issues of augmented language and to educate broader audiences during our conference presentations. This very tension between the need to balance recognition of a specialized area and the need to demonstrate relevance to broad audiences is at the crux of specialty recognition. The impact of specialty recognition on the status of AAC within ASHA is therefore of primary concern. Would the status of AAC be enhanced by the increased quality of services expected to result from specialized expertise? Or is there a chance that AAC would become marginalized, viewed as a subdiscipline that other speech and language providers need not explore in any detail? Whatever we choose, we must evaluate whether the policy can be made to work to the benefit of all involved members, including individual speech-language pathologists, researchers in related areas, the division as a whole, ASHA as a professional organization, and ultimately the consumers who might benefit from AAC services. First Page Preview × View Large Subscribe to view more For full access to this article, log in to an existing user account, become a SIG affiliate, or purchase a short-term subscription. Become a SIG Affiliate Join a SIG Pay Per View Entire SIG 12 Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication content & archive 24-hour access $25.00 Buy Now This Issue 24-hour access $17.00 Buy Now This Article 24-hour access $10.00 Buy Now Sign In or Create an Account Please sign in using your ASHA.org login. If you do not have an ASHA login, you may register with us for free by creating a new account. Sign In or Create an Account We've Changed Our Publication Model... The 19 individual SIG Perspectives publications have been relaunched as the new, all-in-one Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Learn more > Related Articles Related Topics Augmentative & Alternative Communication