AAC Beyond the Tool: Building the Extended Mind in Inclusive Learning Ecosystems

Abstract

This paper looks at Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) not just as a compensatory tool, but as a core part of the “extended mind” within educational ecosystems. Moving beyond a narrow, individual-focused view of disability, AAC is seen through a Batesonian lens as a network of signs and technologies that creates feedback loops between people, their environment, and culture. In this perspective, cognition is not confined to the individual—it emerges from the ongoing interaction between the user and their communicative tools, making learning an ecological, shared, and dynamic process.
The article also explores how schools, understood as learning communities, can evolve toward more collaborative forms of governance, where communication is a shared responsibility grounded in context. It considers the growing role of agentic Artificial Intelligence, which can reshape how decisions are made and communication unfolds, raising new ethical questions about who “owns” thought in hybrid human–AI systems. The paper argues that AAC embodies the vision of the post-digital school: an environment where inclusion is not an afterthought, but the natural starting point for a system that learns, adapts, and grows through its own artifacts.