Board Modes
The board can wear five different "outfits," from two big choices for a brand-new communicator to a full word grid with a keyboard. Picking the right mode for the right student — and the right moment — is one of the most useful things you can do in AcademicVoice.
Badges: School · Pro · Clinician · AAC — all five modes are in every edition.
1. Switching modes
Tap the mode button in the top navigation strip (it shows the current mode's name with a small arrow). A menu opens with the modes available to your student — tap one and the board changes immediately. The student's vocabulary and progress stay the same; only the layout and interaction style change. (At the earliest vocabulary levels the mode button does not appear — the board stays in its current mode.)
2. The five modes
Simple Choice
Four large buttons — want, need, help, and stop — ideal for a student who is just starting out. Big targets, instant speech, no clutter.
Basic Needs
A dozen essential words — the things a student needs to say most often — on one uncrowded page. A good home base for early communicators who are past two-choice selection but not ready for a full grid.
Core Board
The full communication grid: core words organized by color-coded part of speech, folders for people, places, and things, and the sentence strip on top. This is the "main" board most chapters of this guide describe, and where academic vocabulary appears during lessons.
Quick Response (Text Mode)
For students moving from symbols toward spelling and typing. The student composes with text, with word prediction to speed things up, and can save typed phrases to reuse them (Starter, Saved, and Recent tabs) — a bridge toward literacy for students who are ready. The menu shows this mode as Quick Response.
Story Builder
A narrative mode for telling what happened — sequencing pictures and words into a story ("first…, then…, last…"). Story Builder appears automatically when the student's vocabulary level is 4 or above — adjust the Vocabulary Access Mode / CCS Level in Settings → Student Profile (on School the level is set by the student's team).
3. Which mode for which student?
| If the student… | Start with |
|---|---|
| is making their first selections | Simple Choice |
| reliably picks from a small set | Basic Needs |
| combines words into short messages | Core Board |
| is beginning to spell or type | Quick Response (Text Mode) |
| is working on retelling and sequencing | Story Builder |
Modes are a moment-to-moment tool, not a permanent label — many students use Simple Choice during a noisy transition and their Core Board during class.
Tips
- Mode changes are instant and safe to explore — nothing is deleted or reset when you switch.
- The emergency words stay visible in every mode.
- If a mode a student needs doesn't appear in the menu, check the student's vocabulary level — some modes appear based on it.