ABCD Project Personnel

  • Bob Williams, CommunicationFIRST, ABCD Project Director
  • Mary Schuh, University of New Hampshire, ABCD Project Consultant
  • Tauna Szymanski, CommunicationFIRST
  • Kim Singleton, Director of Assistive Technology Programs, Director of ACES Program, Temple University Institute on Disabilities
  • Kathryn Helland, Temple University ACES Program
  • Hali Strickler, Temple University ACES Program

ABCD Thought Leader Panel

  • Ken Capone, Director, People on the Go of Maryland
  • Samantha Crane, Legal Director, Autistic Self Advocacy Network
  • Rick Creech, PaTTAN
  • MaryAlice Favro, Clinical Associate Professor, VT LEND Clinical Director and Associate Training Director
  • Amy Goldman, Association of Assistive Technology Programs (ATAP) and United States Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (USSAAC)
  • Tawara Goode, Director, National Center for Cultural Competence, Director, Georgetown University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Center for Child and Human Development
  • Ron Hager, Managing Attorney for Education and Employment, National Disability Rights Network
  • David Hutt, Legal Director, National Disability Rights Network
  • Clarissa Kripke, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine
  • Megan Morris, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
  • Meral Omurtag, Scripps Health Clinic Division of Gerontology; Board Member, CDG CARE Rare Disease Patient Group
  • Dawn Rudolph, Senior Director, Technical Assistance & Network Engagement, Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD)
  • Megan Rusciano, Attorney, Disability Rights Maryland
  • Mary Sowers, Executive Director, National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services
  • Shea Tanis, Co-Director for Policy and Advocacy, Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities, University of Colorado; Principal Investigator, State of the States in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Longitudinal Data Project of National Significance, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
  • Joanne Watson, Lecturer in Disability and Inclusion, Deakin University
  • Therese Willkomm, University of New Hampshire, ATinNH

ABCD ACES Participants

All participants in the 2020 ACES program sponsored by the Temple University Institute on Disabilities were full-time or part-time users of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Since its creation in 1990, the ACES program has taken place during the summer over a 1-2 week period on the Temple University campus in Philadelphia every two years. The pandemic delayed and forced the 2020 program to be redesigned and take place online. This had the benefit of allowing a wider variety of applicants to participate.

Participants hailed from 16 US states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin). A little more than half the participants were aged 20-29, with one aged 18-19, seven aged 30-39, two aged 40-49, and one aged 50-59. Ten identified as male, seven as female, and seven as nonbinary or transgender or both. One participant described themselves as Asian, one did not specify race, and the rest described themselves as white. One described themselves as Hispanic or Latin American. The primary home language was described as English for 22 of the participants, Spanish for one participant, and ASL/English for one participant. Four participants were subject to legal guardianship, while the rest were their own decisionmakers. Almost all participants described themselves as multimodal communicators or as using multiple forms of AAC, and a wide variety of specific forms of AAC were described as being used by participants.

  • Isaac Baldry
  • Grant Blasko
  • Ben Breaux
  • Aspen Bryan
  • Caitlyn Connelly
  • endever* corbin
  • Rebecca Coulter
  • Donnie TC Denome
  • Ryan Duncanwood
  • Robert Evans
  • Charlie Fleisch
  • Matthew Jennings
  • Elizabeth Martin
  • Carly Pfister
  • Ami Profeta
  • E R
  • Jesahel Ricci
  • Haley Shiber
  • Cole Sorensen
  • Mark Steidl
  • Saoirse Tilton
  • Alex Toole
  • TuttleTurtle
  • Danny Whitty
  • Jordyn Zimmerman