This page contains resources, announcements, guest blogs, essays, videos, and other stuff. Come back often!
CommunicationFIRST is excited to announce the following additions to its leadership team: Our new Vice Chair is Pancho Ramirez Our new Secretary is Gita Gupta Haben Girma was elected to the Board of Directors Alice Wong has joined our Advisory Council Their biographies can be found below. Please join us…
On April 19, 2023, CommunicationFIRST was honored to be given an award from the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) for “leadership in advocating for inclusive communities for people with disabilities and their families.” CommunicationFIRST’s co-founder and Policy Director Bob Williams delivered the acceptance speech on behalf of the…
On June 20, 2022, the evening after Juneteenth, CommunicationFIRST Policy Director Bob Williams, and CommunicationFIRST Advisory Council member Devva Kasnitz moderated this 90-minute online event called The Power and Art of AAC: Disrupting Racism, Ableism, and Oppression – A Conversation with Three Generations of Award-Winning Artists and Activists, joined by…
The following is the transcript of Bob Williams’ eulogy delivered at the March 8, 2023 memorial service for CommunicationFIRST’s late Board member Judy Heumann. The service was live-streamed by the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, DC, and a captioned, ASL-interpreted recording can be viewed here. Bob’s eulogy begins at time-stamp…
Like others in the disability community and around the world, everyone at CommunicationFIRST is devastated by the untimely loss of our badass colleague, Judy Heumann. Judy was elected to our Board of Directors in June 2019, months before CommunicationFIRST publicly launched. She played an indispensable role in helping the organization…
Content Warning: This post discusses police brutality against disabled people. On January 26, 2023, police in Huntington Park, California, fatally shot a 36-year-old Black man and double amputee, Anthony Lowe. Police had been called because of allegations that Lowe had stabbed someone. Video footage of the incident shows Lowe “[outside…
I hear their painful cries jut up from cracks on the street.
The block is a scorching frying pan,
frying my brothers on the pavement.
A Working Definition and Request for Input For centuries, people with significant speech disabilities have been treated as if we should not be seen or heard. Our ability, right, and basic need to express ourselves have been routinely overlooked and denied. Our words have been questioned because we do not…
When Agencies Listen
It’s gratifying when policymakers #LISTEN! On November 21, 2022, CommunicationFIRST submitted comments to the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) in response to the agency’s forthcoming 2024-2029 Long-Range Plan. While listening to the NIDILRR Research Long Range Planning Stakeholder Follow Up Webinar recently, we were stunned…
Read More about When Agencies Listen