In celebration of Bill of Rights Day, Bob Williams reflects on the power free expression holds for those of us who cannot rely on speech alone to be heard and understood.
Our resource guides people with speech-related disabilities and mental health conditions, allies, and lifeline workers.
Dr. Lateef McLeod’s “How Ableism Impacts People Who Use AAC” presentation was first given at the Future of AAC Research Summit on May 14, 2024, in Arlington, Virginia.
If you are a researcher, an AAC user interested in research opportunities, or a person supporting an AAC user interested in these opportunities, learn about how we can best connect you!
This resource includes quick tips written by AAC users on organizing and hosting online meetings with AAC users.
Bob Williams’s Literacy and AAC presentation was first given at the Future of AAC Research Summit on May 14, 2024, in Arlington, Virginia.
CommunicationFIRST held a brainstorming session to begin to identify some of the “good, bad, and ugly” ways technologies can uniquely impact people with speech-related disabilities.
CommunicationFIRST publicly recruited a diverse group of AAC users who were willing to be interviewed on camera about their priorities for AAC research.
In a first-of-its-kind event held May 13-14, 2024, people with speech-related disabilities from around the U.S. told senior federal officials and researchers how future research dollars should be prioritized.
On December 19, 2023, CommunicationFIRST asked the US Census Bureau to begin formally counting the estimated 5 million people…
Government websites and apps are a central lever for exercising our civic and constitutionally grounded rights and responsibilities of freedom of expression, assembly, grievance, petition, protest, jury duty, and the franchise. As a matter of right and necessity, people who need AAC must be afforded equally effective access to state and local government websites and apps that all others are afforded.
Last month, CommunicationFIRST submitted extensive input to one of the largest federal government funders of AAC-related research — the…
Invited Remarks of CommunicationFIRST Policy Director Bob Williams to the Federal Communications Commission Task Force to Prevent Digital Discrimination September 14, 2023…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 7, 2023 Contact: Tauna Szymanski & Bob Williams at info@communicationfirst.org, 202-556-0573 WASHINGTON, D.C. —…
I escaped the very worst that hundreds of thousands of baby boomers like me endured: institutionalization, isolation, illiteracy, and silencing. We believe that many — and likely most — young people needing AAC today are suffering virtually the same fate I escaped over 50 years ago.