Over the past 30 years, augmented and assisted communication (AAC) has made tremendous advances in theory, research and practice and it is now an important part of professional work in many educational, therapeutic and medical fields. This compendium summarizes these developments and, using a new approach, provides systematic access to the various topics and fields of work in AAC. In addition to basic theoretical positions, the areas of language development and AAC, diagnosis in AAC, intervention and participation, literacy (acquisition of written language), care structures and quality assurance, as well as research and evaluation, are differentiated on the basis of the current state of research and