It is estimated that approximately 97 million people in the world have complex communication needs and may benefit from alternative and augmentative communication (AAC). Although AAC is considered an evidenced-based intervention, device abandonment remains common, and researchers have attempted to analyze the causes of people abandoning devices. These devices have been prescribed following extensive assessment and often a protracted period of negotiation with a funding body. In this paper, we present the process of AAC prescription using a new model called the Communication Capability Approach by adding the Capability Approach from Amartya Sen to the widely used Participation Model. This allows clinicians to see individual daily decision-making as a valid choice of the individual. We propose reframing the concept of device abandonment as the person and their family making a choice to use a full range of multimodal communication to meet their own needs. This changes the tone of the narrative to viewing the person using AAC as competent and able to exercise self-determination and agency in this decision rather than as abandoning the device. AAC choices can be made on a day-to-day basis, according to the context of use so that people do not abandon devices but rather use whichever mode of communication is appropriate to the context.