We’re still processing the crushing news about the passing of CommunicationFIRST friend and Advisory Council member Alice Wong. We were made better by her work. Read about some of her AAC and communication-disability-related activism.
With mixed feelings, we share the news that CommunicationFIRST’s co-founder Bob Williams is retiring.
![[Image: Bob Williams wears a plaid cap and glasses. He sits in a powerchair with a microphone near his speech-generating device. Behind him is the US Capitol building. Image credit: Alison Chandra.]](https://communicationfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bob-Williams-Protect-Medicaid-Remarks-by-Alison-Chandra-1-1600x2133.jpg)
During the last week of July 2025, Caring Across Generations, CommunicationFIRST, and other partners held a 60-Hour Protect Medicaid Vigil. This vigil showed Congress the huge importance of Medicaid to many constituents with disabilities and their allies. During the vigil, CommunicationFIRST’s Co-Founder Bob Williams gave the following personal remarks.
We interviewed our own Dr. Lateef McLeod about his dissertation on peer mentorship between AAC users. He showed the importance of offering mentorship by us, for us, and co-created mentorship spaces accessible to people who use a variety of forms of AAC.
The journal of Augmentative and Alternative Communication published papers from our Future of AAC Research Summit! Nearly all of the 21 papers are authored or co-authored by someone who uses AAC. Access these papers and watch many of the authors present now.
Typing with his toes is one way our Board Director Tim Jin communicates. Tim’s key(board) to success has been embracing change in AAC technology! Learn more from his AAC Research Summit talk.
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!
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.
It’s gratifying when policymakers #LISTEN! On November 21, 2022, CommunicationFIRST submitted comments to the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living,…
CommunicationFIRST is excited to announce the following additions to its leadership team: Our new Vice Chair is Pancho Ramirez Our…
On April 19, 2023, CommunicationFIRST was honored to be given an award from the Association of University Centers on Disabilities…