Team Consensus Concerning Important Outcomes for Augmentative and Alternative Communication Assistive Technologies: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Obstacles to assistive device outcome measurement include a lack of consensus about which outcomes should be evaluated. This article reports a case study of the use of a structured consensus-building approach called Technique for Research of Information by Animation of a Group of Experts (TRIAGE) to develop agreement among key professional team members with regard to outcome measurement. We also describe the changes in key professional team members’ perspectives on outcome measurement over time. Initially, participants expressed preferences for the measurement of about 33 different outcomes. Subsequent discussions and the TRIAGE process led to the choice of the five most important outcomes. Our case study provides evidence that professional team consensus could successfully be reached through the individual reflections and group sharing proposed by the TRIAGE technique. Future research directions include the development of strategies to give prominence to the opinions of individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in the identification of important outcomes, and for aggregating and interpreting data gathered at local, regional, or national levels.