If you would like to know more about this subject, or if you are unsure how to proceed, why not contact AbilityNet and see if we can help. Back to Top. Dedicated vs a Computer as a Communication Aid. A dedicated communication aid is a device that has been purposely built for that job, and does nothing else. From this basic acknowledgement of difference, we can point out some typical pros and cons.
Many aids are symbol based and still provide full functionality in order to communicate with others.
Personal computers have become progressively more common in the area of communication over the last decade, and many different software packages are currently available. The benefits of a computerised communication aid are wide ranging, but probably the most notable is the flexibility. The ability to create and manipulate vast amounts of options makes it one of the more preferred choices for many communication specialists. A major drawback to date has been the portability of a computer-based system. Typically the weight, size and cost has made computer based aids available to the minority rather than the majority, but as technology improves we are finding more products appearing which are based on this technology, yet have the same physical characteristics of the more traditional dedicated communication aids.