Designing for Relational Maintenance: New Directions for AAC Research

AAC research has traditionally focused on input speed, leaving higher-level communication goals such as relational maintenance under-explored. Through semi-structured interviews with AAC users with motor and speech impairments and their primary family caregivers, we offer a nuanced understanding of AAC’s roles in maintaining close relationships. Our inductive analysis reveals emerging themes including how AAC users and their partners share the physical and mental workload to overcome communication barriers in complex situations. Our deductive application of the Relational Maintenance Strategies framework exposes the efforts made and the challenges encountered in managing social engagements, providing mutual support, and decoding implicit expressions. From these insights, we propose novel research directions for better supporting maintenance strategies and social purposes of communication, including notably mediating relational tensions, leveraging empowerment and identity, and supporting interactions for social closeness and etiquette, which we hope will motivate discussion in HCI communities on expanding AAC research space.