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Systemic social isolation of AAC users (Blasko, 2024)

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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/

Speech is Simpy Exhausting (corbin, 2024)

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endever* corbin

endever* corbin is a multiply disabled semispeaking autistic self-advocate. Their life has improved so markedly since getting access to AAC that they now spend a lot of their time on research, presentations, consulting, and mentoring related to it.

Webcast Description

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

Please cite as
corbin, e. (2024, May 13). Speech is simply exhausting. [Webinar]. Future of AAC Research Summit, Arlington, VA. https://tinyurl.com/AAC-speech-2024

Transcript as pdf

Video production by Rylie Mueller (Penn State University)

Additional Resources

Donaldson, A. L., corbin, e., Zisk, A. H., & Eddy, B. (2023). Promotion of communication access, choice, and agency for autistic students. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 54(1), 140-155.

Donaldson, A. L., corbin, e., & McCoy, J. (2021). “Everyone deserves AAC”: Preliminary study of the experiences of speaking autistic adults who use augmentative and alternative communication. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 6(2), 315-326.

Crossing the communication chasm (Crisp-Cooper, 2024)

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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/

Supporting individuals who need AAC in learning language & literacy (Holyfield et al, 2024)

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Presentation Team

Christine Holyfield, Janice Light, David McNaughton, Dana Nieder, and Jamie Preece

Webcast Description

This presentation was first made at the Future of AAC Research Summit on May 14, 2024.

Cite as
Holyfield, C., Light, J., McNaughton, D., Nieder, D., & Preece, J. (2024, May 14). Supporting individuals who need AAC in learning language & literacy: State of the science, emerging technologies, and future research directions [Conference session]. Future of AAC Research Summit, Arlington, VA. https://tinyurl.com/AAC-Holyfield-et-al-2024

(Transcript as pdf)

Video production by Rebecca Wood (Penn State University)

Additional Resources

Light, J., Barwise, A., Gardner, A. M., & Flynn, M. (2021). Personalized early AAC intervention to build language and literacy skills: A case study of a 3-year-old with complex communication needs. Topics in Language Disorders, 41(3), 209-231.

Patenaude, D., McNaughton, D., & Liang, Z. (2024). Using visual scene displays with young children: An evidence-based practice synthesis. Journal of Special Education Technology, Early on-line.

How ableism impacts people who need and use AAC (Wong, 2024)

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Alice Wong

Alice Wong (she/her) is a disabled activist, writer, media maker, and consultant. She is a relatively new AAC user and nonspeaking person. Alice is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture. Alice is the editor of Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, an anthology of essays by disabled people and Disability Visibility: 17 First-Person Stories for Today, an adapted version for young adults. Her debut memoir, Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life, is available now from Vintage Books. Her most recent anthology,  Disability Intimacy, has now been published. Twitter: @SFdirewolf.

Webcast Description

Alice describes the impact of ableism on her communication and life experiences. This presentation was first made at the Future of AAC Research Summit on May 13, 2024.
(Transcript as pdf)

Cite as
Wong, A. (2024, May 13). How ableism impacts people who need and use AAC [Conference session]. Future of AAC Research Summit, Arlington, VA. https://tinyurl.com/AAC-Wong-2024

Additional Resources

Samuels, E. (2017). Six ways of looking at crip time. Disability Studies Quarterly, 37(3).

Wong, A. (May 20, 2024). Augmentative and alternative communication: How becoming a user changed my relationships. Teen Vogue

Wong, A. (November, 2019) Speech for ASAN Gala

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.