Croatian context

There is no official polices, rules or laws regarding AAC in education and communication with people with disabilities. But there are recommendation in some laws and rules for using AAC in communication with people with disabilities based on Communication bill of rights (National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of persons with severe disabilities, NJC, 2015.)

1. Guidelines for working with students with developmental disabilities (Ministry of science and education, 2021).
2. Regulations on teaching assistants and professional communication mediators (Ministry of science and education, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023).

1. Adaptation of materials and application of assistive technology for the purpose of individualising learning and teaching procedure with reference to students’ abilities.
2. Knowledge of the use of assisted communication in working with students with developmental difficulties (obligation content of the training of teaching assistants and expert communication intermediaries).

There is no research about using AAC in education and communication with people with disabilities in Croatia, but some datas showing that AAC is used mainly for comunication with people with ASD or people with severe communication needs. Experts who are using AAC are mainly speech therapists and special education teachers (eg in 2014, only 2% of experts used AAC for communication with people with severe communication needs).

Experts in the field of special education (speech therapists, special education teachers, psychologists, pedagogues, teachers) in early and preprimary education, primary and secondary education. Free AAC resources: ARAASAC, Pictoselector, ICT-AAC (different aplication for AAC). Paid resources: Boardmaker

Communication Bill of Rights https://nwacs.info/communication-bill-of-rights 

ICT-AAC http://www.ict-aac.hr/index.php/hr/ 

Ivšac Pavliša J., Peretić M., Bohaček A.,Talian K. (2016). IKT u vrtiću – od istraživanja do primjene. Dijete, vrtić, obitelj 80/81, str. 16-20.

Pravilnik o pomoćnicima u nastavi i stručnim komunikacijskim posrednicima (2018, 2019, 2020, 2023). Zagreb: Ministarstvo znanosti i obrazovanja  https://zakon.hr/cms.htm?id=40115 

Smjernice za rad s učenicima s teškoćama u razvoju (2021). Zagreb: Ministarstvo znanosti i obrazovanja https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjl67y0_N2DAxXpSvEDHSXtBVgQFnoECA8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmzo.gov.hr%2FUserDocsImages%2Fdokumenti%2FObrazovanje%2FSmjernice%2520za%2520rad%2520s%2520ucenicima%2520s%2520teskocama.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0y1YyPSa0OeF2H5w1tiZcc&opi=89978449