Professor Malcolm MacLachlan:

That should definitely happen in terms of where we are right now with it. We know the existing system is still effectively a postcode lottery, so what sort of access you have to technologies depends on where you live. It also depends, sometimes, on the particular interests and expertise of the people involved in the committees doing that purchasing. It is imperative that we move away from that system and, as my colleagues have said, establish a national framework that gives an equitable playing ground. That means it may be the case that there are some people without access to any AAC who will have access to it. It may mean that some people who have access to very high-level and expensive AAC may have less access to it because we need to spread the available resources more broadly. Of course we would love to level everybody up, but we will need more resources and we will need to get alignment between all of the various policies, as well as more staff training.