I always wish that I could have the ability to speak to anyone at any time and place that I want. Sometimes I cannot speak even a word in a certain circumstances, including unexpected situations, nervous situations, amd in public. I always thought that I would be a more professional and more social woman if I did not have a speech impairment. Even before I knew what AAC was, I had a fantastic dream one night that I had a device that could read my mind and talk for me, so that I could express myself whenever I wanted or wherever I went.

Since I have learned about AAC through various courses, I am consistently amazed by the cutting edge devices available. Nevertheless, I did not think of myself as using AAC. Since many of AAC devices focus on simple communication designed for someone who is cognitively delayed, I could not find a device to fit my fantastic dream.

The history of my own experience with AAC began at the Closing the Gap conference in October, 2000. This was my first time attending a national conference and I was amazed by the amazing assistive technology devices there. An idea flashed upon me, that there, at the conference, I might find a useful device to meet my needs. I had great opportunities to try various types of AAC devices right in front of me. It was there that I found EZKeys, a software package made by Word +.

EZKeys is a communication software with rapid text-to-speech voice output utilizing word prediction and abbreviation expansion. It controls your mouse through a single switch, Morse Code, joystick, switch scanning, direct selection and more. Addionally, it stores hundreds of thousands of phrases and sentences and then retreive them instantly using EZKeys Instant Phrases. It delivers a speech to a large audience or to a small family group with Reader window.

After using EZKeys, my life is more upgraded. What I mean by upgrade is that I can actively particpate in class discussions, presente a national conference, and so on. In other words, my life becomes more professional. Please hear the demo of my presentation using EZKeys at conference.

I am going to talk a little bit about my personal feeling, as a user of AACom device. I had a dilemma in using AACom device myself. what I was worrying about is that I might not be able to speak in public forever, if I depend on voice output software too much. I was worrying what if I become less and less brave to talk, with my own voice? By these reasons, I was not sure that, using AAC device is the ultimate solution for overcoming my disability. However, I realize now that my life becomes more and more vivid. I can have more opportunity after using AACom device, like presenting at the conference, etc. I think that my AAC device is not just a device for me. It is an important part of my life. AAC is the one of my good friends.

Now, I have very intersted in how other AAC users think of their AAC and how they use AAC. My own experiece of AAC accelated my research curiosity --- Initial Dissertation Planning (Curiosity about other's experiences with AAC).