PRC-Saltillo

Non-speaking people purchase PRC-Saltillo devices and apps to speak, write, and direct care when schools, workplaces, clinics, and public systems still assume natural speech.

ENABLE Model location

• Navigator-side Compensations → Use Assistive Technologies
• Builder-side Interventions → Create Accessible Content
• Builder-side Interventions → Design Accessible Experiences
• Builder-side Interventions → Develop Accessible Implementations

What it is

Engineers, speech-language pathologists, trainers, and funding staff at PRC-Saltillo build speech-generating devices and AAC software for people who cannot rely on oral speech alone.¹² Ed Prentke and Barry Romich founded the original Prentke Romich Company in 1966, and the firm formally merged with Saltillo in 2019.³ Their product line includes dedicated devices such as the Via family and apps such as TouchChat with WordPower, alongside vocabulary systems such as LAMP Words for Life, Unity, and WordPower.²⁴ People with autism, cerebral palsy, apraxia, ALS, aphasia, stroke-related communication loss, and other communication disabilities use those systems to generate speech, compose messages, participate in class, direct care, and carry on ordinary conversation.²⁴⁵

Designers, developers, trainers, and funding staff around PRC-Saltillo occupy a dual position in the ENABLE Model. They deliver real builder-side care by making devices, software, and language content that many users need in order to communicate at all. At the same time, the products function as navigator-side assistive technologies: people must acquire, learn, transport, fund, maintain, and sometimes repair specialized tools because mainstream systems still privilege fast oral speech and standard keyboard input.²⁶

Why it matters

Users, families, SLPs, payers, and PRC-Saltillo staff operate inside a communication system that repeatedly forces nonspeaking people to prove medical need before they can access a basic mode of expression. In the United States, speech-generating devices move through Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, military insurance, schools, vocational rehabilitation, and other funding channels.⁶⁷ Current ASHA medical-review guidance notes that even commercial tablets can qualify as speech-generating devices when they run AAC software and meet medical-necessity criteria.⁷ PRC-Saltillo funding staff advertise support as part of the acquisition process because communication access does not flow automatically from mainstream consumer technology; users and clinicians must navigate documentation, evaluations, prescriptions, and reimbursement rules before a device reaches the person who needs it.²⁶ The Center for Medicare Advocacy described the stakes bluntly: without a speech-generating device, many people remain "isolated and awake, trapped inside a body they cannot control, with no ability to communicate."⁸

That burden matters because mainstream institutions still organize interaction around speech. Phone trees expect spoken answers. Customer-service workers hang meaning on speed and vocal clarity. Schools and clinics often treat AAC as a special accommodation instead of a baseline communication pathway. When those systems fail to design for AAC users, the devices and apps these teams build help people communicate anyway, but they do so as compensatory infrastructure that users must carry into rooms that were not built for them.²⁷ The school side of that ecosystem now matters at scale: a 2025 study of U.S. school AAC practice found that when schools adopted a single preferred system, TouchChat with WordPower appeared most often among those single-system choices, while LAMP Words for Life also appeared as a recurring choice.⁹ The same article noted that some single-system advocates describe the model as "one size might fit most."⁹ School-wide standardization can expand access to training and materials, but it can also narrow student choice when districts value administrative consistency over individualized fit.⁹

Communication barriers also migrate into bodies and care outcomes. A 2025 observational study of hospital interactions with people with aphasia found that failed communication triggered frustration and restricted exchange of important clinical information.¹⁰ A 2021 study of 194 nurses found that "very few nurses used Augmentative and alternative communication strategies" with non-speaking critically ill patients and recommended hospitals establish them more systematically.¹¹ Earlier stroke-outcomes research found that aphasia independently increased hospital length of stay and complications during acute admission.¹² Communication neglect turns into safety risk, emotional strain, and longer institutional exposure.

Medicare reimbursement rules, device-lock policies, and warranty terms shape which communication tools people can get, keep, unlock, repair, or replace.⁷¹³¹⁴ Coverage fights have also reshaped the field over time, and reimbursement policy can narrow communication access. In 2014, the Center for Medicare Advocacy warned that CMS policy interpretations would push more users toward rentals and restrict broader functionality on covered devices.⁸ PRC-Saltillo staff now sell both dedicated devices and software pathways, including options for users who receive a dedicated device first and later pay to unlock it into a more general-purpose tablet.¹³ Support teams also sell extended warranty and repair infrastructure, including loan equipment during repair when available.¹⁴ Reimbursement rules, platform lock-in, warranty terms, and service continuity influence access as much as user preference does. The 2024 cyberattack on PRC-Saltillo made that dependence visible: the outage disrupted websites, funding tools, training systems, software updates, message banking, and some app services, while the later breach notices covered nearly 52,000 affected individuals and included medical-device and insurance-related data.¹⁵¹⁶

Real-world examples

In the news

Weiser Memorial Hospital investigates potential data breach (October 2024)
-- Jill Hughes, TechTarget

• TechTarget reported that PRC-Saltillo notified nearly 52,000 people after an August 2024 cyberattack. The affected information included Medicare and Medicaid plan names, device-purchase information, treatment-cost data, and health-insurance details. The event shows how deeply AAC procurement sits inside healthcare and reimbursement systems, not just inside app stores or classrooms.¹⁵

In the news

Utilization of a single preferred AAC system in US schools (June 2025)
-- Jill E. Senner, Wendy Quach, Yoosun Chung, Brian Patterson, Amy Goldman, Sarah Blackstone, and Kathleen A. Post

• Researchers surveying U.S. school AAC practice found that some districts adopt a single preferred system across a school or district, often with limited stakeholder input. In the subgroup reporting a single preferred system, TouchChat with WordPower appeared most often and LAMP Words for Life also appeared. That finding places PRC-Saltillo inside school standardization debates, not only inside individual device prescriptions.⁹

• PRC-Saltillo maintains a funding department and online portal because clinicians and families often need help assembling the paperwork required to secure a speech-generating device through Medicaid, Medicare, or commercial insurance.²⁶
• Frederick County Public Schools' Assistive Technology Team maintains a TouchChat page with district quick-start guides, self-guided modules, emulation software, troubleshooting steps, and local help-ticket routing. That page shows how school systems build their own support infrastructure around a PRC-Saltillo platform after adoption.¹⁷
• Apple App Store reviewers describe TouchChat as life-changing for some families and classrooms while also documenting bugs, crashes, motor-access friction, and representational limits such as skin-tone options. Those reviews show AAC users and families doing ongoing quality-control work after purchase.⁵
• The National Aphasia Association lists TouchChat as a communication tool for people with aphasia and describes it as "an AAC app offering a vocabulary file specifically designed for individuals with aphasia." That listing places some PRC-Saltillo access routes inside consumer purchasing rather than only inside clinical device procurement.¹⁸

What care sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Care at the design and development stages means building communication tools around AAC users' actual linguistic and motor needs:

• "We design vocabulary systems that let a communicator grow from single words to complex language without relearning the whole device."
• "We build both eye-gaze-ready devices and touch-based systems because users do not all access language the same way."
• "We support funding, training, and repair because communication access fails when a device reaches a user without the surrounding infrastructure."

What neglect sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Neglect happens when institutions keep treating oral speech as the default and AAC as an exception:

• "If they cannot answer out loud, we cannot complete the call."
• "We only tested this workflow with people who speak and type."
• "Their communication device is a personal accommodation problem, not a system-design requirement."
• "We can add AAC compatibility later if someone complains."

What compensation sounds like (navigator-side compensations)

Compensation describes the work nonspeaking people and their support teams carry when communication systems assume speech:

• "I bring my device everywhere because every room expects me to speak."
• "My family and SLP spent months collecting paperwork before insurance approved the device."
• "I can communicate with this app, but I still have to explain to every teacher, receptionist, and support worker how to wait for me."
• "When the device goes down, my whole day shrinks."

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All observations occur within U.S. AAC, special education, clinical care, and insurance systems, where nonspeaking people, families, SLPs, educators, funders, repair staff, and assistive-technology builders negotiate access to communication through devices, apps, coverage rules, and repair timelines.

Footnotes

1. PRC-Saltillo: About ↩

2. PRC-Saltillo: Via family / device and funding pages ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. PRC-Saltillo: Why PRC-Saltillo / company history ↩

4. TouchChat with WordPower ↩ ↩²

5. Apple App Store: TouchChat HD - AAC w/ WordPower ↩ ↩²

6. USSAAC: Funding ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. ASHA: Speech-Language Pathology Medical Review Guidelines ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Center for Medicare Advocacy: Medicare's Reluctance to Embrace Technology: Effects on the Coverage of Speech Generating Devices ↩ ↩²

9. Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Utilization of a single preferred AAC system in US schools ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

10. PubMed: The role of technology in healthcare communication between people with aphasia and healthcare professionals: an observational study ↩

11. PMC: Communicating to Non-Speaking Critically Ill Patients: Augmentative and Alternative Communication Technique as an Essential Strategy ↩

12. PubMed: Effect of aphasia on acute stroke outcomes ↩

13. TouchChat / PRC-Saltillo: Dedicated vs non-dedicated devices ↩ ↩²

14. PRC-Saltillo: Warranty Coverage & Options ↩ ↩²

15. TechTarget: Speech-generating device developer suffers data breach ↩ ↩²

16. PRC-Saltillo Systems Outage / cyberattack updates ↩

17. Frederick County Public Schools Assistive Technology Team: TouchChat ↩

18. National Aphasia Association: TouchChat ↩