Professor Dr Jens Boenisch: Research is shaping supported communication

Jens Boenisch is Professor of Education for People with Physical and Motor Disabilities at the University of Cologne. As Director of the Research and Advice Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (FBZ-UK), he combines basic research with practical application and develops evidence-based language support concepts for nonverbal children. In 2010, he founded FBZ gGmbH as a university spin-off to apply scientific findings directly to care and education. With innovations such as the communication aid MyCore and the inclusive reading/learning concept LINK, he creates sustainable transfer structures between the university, the healthcare system, and educational institutions, achieving measurable social impact.

1. What role has transfer played in your career so far?

The central unit of FBZ-UK is the Consultation Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), where people without functional spoken language are assessed, and their relatives and educational and therapeutic professionals are advised on therapy and assistive devices. In the FBZ-UK centre, new concepts can be developed and tested in practice both within the framework of research projects and through the weekly therapy sessions.

Through this direct transfer to practice and feedback from practitioners, we have continuously refined our therapy and support concepts, as well as our language development materials. Our practice-relevant results and didactic implementations quickly established FBZ-UK as one of Germany’s leading research centres in augmentative and alternative communication. The concepts and language development materials we have created are now used throughout Germany and in other countries, and our innovative research approach is being recognized internationally. Cooperation agreements with health insurance providers enable FBZ gGmbH to establish a scientifically sound and innovative care structure in the transdisciplinary field of AAC for the Cologne–Aachen–Düsseldorf–Bergisches Land region, serving as a pilot for a new nationwide care model.


2. Which of your transfer activities would you like to report on, and what can you tell us about them?

Together with a small company from Duisburg, the electronic communication aid MyCore for nonverbal children with physical and/or cognitive disabilities was developed between 2011 and 2013 as part of the ZIM funding programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics Affairs and Energy. The vocabulary and the basic linguistic structure of MyCore are based on the research conducted in Cologne. Today, MyCore is a nationally recognized assistive tool in the field of AAC, whose success has helped to transform a small company into one of the major players in the nationwide provision of assistive tools. Since 2013, the University of Cologne has received licensing revenues from the sale of the symbol-based communication aid MyCore.

3. How did you come up with your project?

Based on linguistic vocabulary studies with children with and without disabilities, entirely new language development concepts were created at FBZ-UK. The groundbreaking success of the new intervention strategy – which was initially tested only with non-electronic aids such as communication boards or folders – raised the question of how these insights could be transferred to electronic aids, which offer a much larger vocabulary but smaller interfaces. After an unsuccessful patent application, the ZIM project was carried out in collaboration with a German assistive technology company and a Belgian hardware/software firm.

4. What concrete social impact have you achieved through this activity so far?

In addition to the individual provision with electronic aid MyCore, many thousands of children and adolescents who are unable to speak due to physical and/or cognitive disabilities have now been provided with the communication aids developed in Cologne. Moreover, numerous classrooms and therapy practices throughout Germany have been equipped with didactic materials based on FBZ-UK research, which have been further developed by FBZ gGmbH into the finished product.

Between 2020 and 2025, central accommodation facilities (ZUE) in North Rhine-Westphalia for refugee families were supplied with the Cologne language development materials, and their teachers were trained in our language support concept. Kindergartens and primary schools are also increasingly booking professional development courses based on our language support approach. It has been shown that the approach is not only beneficial for children with disabilities and AAC needs but also accelerates German language acquisition in children for whom German is a second language.

The findings from the Cologne vocabulary studies have also been incorporated into the BMBF-funded research project: LINK (Literacy, Inclusion, Communication), an innovative and inclusive concept for early literacy acquisition in children with and without disabilities. The new insights and materials for early literacy development are now being applied not only in university clinics and German-as-a-second-language programmes but also in general literacy support for kindergartens and primary schools.