Perspectives

On November 10, 2021, CommunicationFIRST hosted an opportunity for AAC users to interview Jordyn Zimmerman about the new documentary This Is Not About Me, featuring Jordyn and her educational experiences with and without access to robust augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). CommunicationFIRST’s Policy Director (and full-time AAC user), Bob Williams,…

We are thrilled and humbled to share that our film LISTEN: Made by and with Nonspeaking Autistics won the Zukor Award at the 2021 Astoria Film Festival last weekend! The Zukor Award is awarded to a film that brings positive attention to an underrepresented topic or group. Congratulations to…

On October 13, 2021, CommunicationFIRST is excited to join with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, and AssistiveWare in celebrating the public release of This Is Not About Me, a documentary featuring one of our Board members, Jordyn Zimmerman. Although the film tells Jordyn’s story,…

Clarissa Kripke with Senate Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee Chair Senator Richard Blumenthal. Photo credit: Tauna Szymanski On September 28, 2021, three CommunicationFIRST Board members and four participants in our August 19 webinar on Guardianships and AAC Users submitted testimony for the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution’s hearing titled…

Last month, CommunicationFIRST responded to the White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Request for Information about how to make the US government’s policies and work more equitable.  Our comments include 12 recommendations.  The first three recommendations ask the government to begin counting people with speech-related disabilities, like…

CommunicationFIRST is pleased to announce it has joined other civil and disability rights groups in filing a brief led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Britney Spears’ conservatorship case. The amicus curiae (or “friend of the court”) brief urges the judge presiding over Ms. Spears’ conservatorship to…

Guardianships and conservatorships are legal tools that are frequently used in the name of protecting people who rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) instead of speech to be heard and understood. Britney Spears’ recent advocacy to end her conservatorship has brought to the public’s attention the downsides of…

Silence can impact all of us: our relationships, learning, and employment. Yet being placed in a setting of forced silence or being denied access to communication has the harshest consequences for those of us unable to speak in a way that is intelligible to others. That is why it’s…

“Why are you using a male voice?” I’m sitting in the car next to a professor who is giving me a ride back to campus. I’m not sure what to type. The first question is, why am I using any voice? I normally prefer to have people read what…