The involvement of people with lifelong disability and communication impairment in lecturing to speech-language pathology students

In order to provide appropriate service and support to people with lifelong disability, including those who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), speech-language pathologists need to develop positive attitudes to people with disability and a holistic approach. The aim of this paper was to explore final year students' and new graduates' perceptions of the impact of lectures by people with lifelong disability on their attitudes and learning. Fourteen final year speech-language pathology students and nine graduates who had been practising for a year participated in four focus groups to discuss their perceptions of four 50-minute lectures by people with lifelong disability and communication impairment. A content analysis of the focus group transcripts revealed five themes; understanding the perspectives of people with disability, seeing the person as a whole, attitudes, working in the field, and gaps in the lectures. Overall there were few differences between the groups that were not accounted for by clinical experience. Participants agreed that the lectures were interesting and informative and provided new insights into lifelong disability, but were an adjunct to a learning process that also required theoretical lectures or clinical practice.