Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
From job automation to the many pitfalls of social media, the technological progress of the past several decades has had mixed social consequences, to put it mildly. However, one of the rare frontiers where tech advances have greatly improved lives with very little downside is in the area of alternative and augmentative communication aids (AACs). Taking many forms and with mutiple uses beyond person-to-person communication, these devices help to give people with speaking disabilities a voice in a society where their rich inner worlds and distinctive points of view are often overlooked. In this short animation, the UK filmmaker Jemima Hughes, who uses an AAC herself, explains how these technologies have evolved, and why, when engaging with someone who uses an AAC, patience is essential.
Director: Jemima Hughes
Website: BBC Ideas
video
Food and drink
Local tensions simmer amid a potato salad contest at the Czech-Polish border
14 minutes
video
Technology and the self
A filmmaker finds a tactile beauty in the creation of her prosthetic leg
11 minutes
video
Knowledge
An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place
4 minutes
video
Biology
Beetles take flight at 6,000 frames per second in this perspective-shifting short
9 minutes
video
War and peace
A war meteorologist’s riveting account of how the Allies averted a D-Day disaster
6 minutes
video
Physics
What does it look like to hunt for dark matter? Scenes from one frontier in the search
7 minutes
video
Technology and the self
How the magic of photography brought Victorian England closer to the spirit realm
16 minutes
video
Neuroscience
Dog vision is a trendy topic, but what can we really know about how they see?
11 minutes
video
Information and communication
An animation built from road signs is a whirlwind study of flash communication
2 minutes