Ms ?ine Lawlor:

It is important to look at what works. The submission we made to the committee looked at research that had been done internationally and how effective that was. There are issues with the research that goes into RPM. At the moment we can say we are advocating for people to have access to other, more effective methods of AAC. It is also important to recognise that the initial cost of a device or alphabet board is not very much but there is a huge time cost. Beginning to use AAC is often like learning a language. A huge time cost has to go into it, and there is a huge risk of abandonment for somebody. In terms, therefore, of giving somebody access to a voice and communication method, we want to give them access to the communication method that will be most effective for them, and give the most autonomous access to communication possible. It is going to evolve with them over time. Generally, what the evidence base says is that other methods are going to do that better. Of course, there are other individual cases going to come out but if we are looking at a funding or policy piece, we can say internationally that we are recommending other methods on that basis.