The AAC Learning Center has moved to AAC-Learning-Center.org

AAC & technology: What’s communication equity got to do with it? (Williams, 2024)

by

Bob Williams

Bob Williams is the Policy Director of CommunicationFIRST, and has advanced the rights and opportunities of children, working age persons and older adults with disabilities for over 40 years by creating community living services, helping to pass the ADA, and administering the federally funded developmental disabilities and independent living networks.

Webcast Description

This presentation was first made at the Future of AAC Research Summit on May 13, 2024.

Please cite as

Williams, B. (2024, May 13). AAC & technology: What’s communication equity got to do with it?. [Conference session]. Future of AAC Research Summit, Arlington, VA. https://tinyurl.com/AAC-Williams-equity-2024

Video production by Rylie Mueller (Penn State University)

Additional Resources

Williams, B. (2025). AAC and technology: what’s communication equity got to do with it? Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2025.2504495

Williams, B. (2024). See us – Hear us. [YouTube video].

Williams, B. (2021). Spelling it out: The ADA and the right to community. [Blogpost]

Williams, B. (2023). Unjustly isolated, silenced, and deprived of literacy and freedom of expression… Remarks to the Office for Civil Rights, US Department of Education by CommunicationFIRST Policy Director Bob Williams.

Systemic social isolation of AAC users (Blasko, 2024)

by

Grant Blasko

Grant Blasko is a young adult nonspeaking autistic student and part of the Summit’s Organizing Committee. He is a University of Washington DO-IT Scholar, an active member of TASH’s National Communication Access Workgroup, and a CommunicationFIRST Advisory Council member. He has served as a stakeholder on panels guiding autism professionals at the American Occupational Therapy Association, CAST, and the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR).

Webcast Description

This presentation was first made at the Future of AAC Research Summit on May 13, 2024.

Please cite as
Blasko, G. (2024, May 13). Systemic social isolation of AAC users. [Conference session]. Future of AAC Research Summit, Arlington, VA. https://tinyurl.com/AAC-Blasko-2024

Video production by Rylie Mueller (Penn State University)

Additional Resources

Blasko, G. (2025). Unveiling underlying systemic isolation challenges for AAC users. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2025.2515279

Blasko, G. (2022). Thoughts from an Autistic AAC User After the April 2022 Meeting of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. https://communicationfirst.org/thoughts-from-an-autistic-aac-user-after-the-april-2022-meeting-of-the-interagency-autism-coordinating-committee/

Blasko, G. (2022). Autism Acceptance … of Communication Stress? https://communicationfirst.org/autism-acceptance–of-communication-stress/

Crossing the communication chasm (Crisp-Cooper, 2024)

by

 



Melissa Crisp-Cooper

Melissa Crisp-Cooper is a writer, adventure seeker, and advocate. She uses many forms of AAC. Melissa is the Associate Director of Participant Experience at The Arc San Francisco. Before joining The Arc, she helped develop educational and policy material related to health care for people with disabilities for the Office of Developmental Primary Care at UCSF. Melissa and her husband Owen live in Oakland, California with two opinionated black cats! Together, they love to travel and eat good food.

Webcast Description

Melissa describes her experiences, observations, and perspectives as a person who uses AAC, and how technology has made things both easier and harder… This presentation was first made at the Future of AAC Research Summit on May 13, 2024.

Cite as

Crisp-Cooper, M. (2024, May 13). Crossing the communication chasm [Conference session]. Future of AAC Research Summit, Arlington, VA. https://tinyurl.com/AAC-Crisp-Cooper-2024

Transcript as pdf

Video production by Rylie Mueller (Penn State University)

Additional resources

Crisp-Cooper, M. (2025). Crossing the communication chasm. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, early online. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2025.2499681

Our Sexuality, Our Health: A Disabled Advocate’s Guide to Relationships, Romance, Sexuality and Sexual Health

https://odpc.ucsf.edu/advocacy/transition-successful-community-living/whats-next-a-self-advocates-guided-tour-through

https://uctv.tv/shows/Who-Defines-My-Quality-of-Life-35787

https://communicationfirst.org/what-is-my-name/

To include us in our own worlds, AAC is not optional (Koloni, 2024)

by

 

Ren Koloni

Ren Koloni, pronouns they/them, is a justice worker and Program Associate at CommunicationFIRST. As a multiply disabled and chronically ill autistic person with some access to speech, they’ve been doing justice work from the sickbed for over a decade. They earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Gender Studies from the University of Mary Washington and a master’s in English from George Washington University, where they focused on disability and racial justice through the lens of trauma studies and narrative.

Webcast Description

Ren Koloni provides their perspective on priorities for the field of AAC. This presentation was first made at the Future of AAC Research Summit on May 13, 2024.

Cite as

Koloni, R. (2024, May 13). To include us in our own worlds, AAC is NOT optional [Conference session]. Future of AAC Research Summit, Arlington, VA. https://tinyurl.com/AAC-Koloni-2024

(Transcript as pdf)

Video production by Ren Koloni and CommunicationFIRST

Additional Resources

Koloni, R. (2021, November 15). Getting to know assistive technology. The RAISE Center.

The First Word in Accessibility is ACCESS  (Regan, 2024)

by

 

by Patrick Regan  

 

Patrick Regan

Patrick Regan has been an AAC user for more than 27 years.  He experiences Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2, and he received his first speech-generating device a few months after his second birthday.  Patrick is USSAAC’s President Elect. He is also a member of ISAAC’s LEAD committee. He is employed as a Media Tech Coordinator, and a Senior Media Tech for St. John United Methodist Church in Anchorage, Alaska.  And he serves as the Coordinator of Activities and Events, and Co-President for Bridging Communities Through Alternative Communication (“BCTAC”), an adult outreach program of The Bridge School, in Hillsborough, California.

Webcast Description

Patrick describes his experiences in acquiring and using AAC technology. This presentation was first made at the Future of AAC Research Summit on May 14, 2024.

Cite as

Regan, P. (2024, May 14). The first word in accessibility is ACCESS [Conference session]. Future of AAC Research Summit, Arlington, VA. https://tinyurl.com/AAC-Regan-2024

(Transcript as pdf)

Video production by Patrick Regan

Additional Resources

Regan, P. (2023, June 6). Introducing Speak Up! and AACT. 

 

The contents of this website are a joint offering of Penn State University and the RERC on AAC. They were developed, in part, under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90REGE0014) to the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (RERC on AAC). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this website do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.