1. communication that is made more effective or efficient (e.g., easier to understand, faster), often with the aid of a technological device or process. Examples include the captioning of TV broadcasts for the benefit of viewers with hearing loss (see closed-captioned television) and the use of speech synthesizers by people who are unable to talk. See also augmentative communication.

2. a controversial method of communication in which a person with a severe developmental disability (e.g., autism) is assisted by a facilitator in typing letters, words, phrases, or sentences on a keyboard. Facilitated communication involves a graduated manual prompting procedure, with the intent of supporting a person’s hand sufficiently to make it more feasible to strike the keys he or she wishes to strike, without influencing the key selection. The procedure is often claimed to produce unexpected literacy, revealed through age-normative or superior communication content, syntax, and fluency. Scientific research findings, however, indicate that the content of the communication is being determined by the facilitator via nonconscious movements. [developed in the 1970s by Australian educator Rosemary Crossley (1945–  )]