We encourage as many AAC users as possible to share your research priorities with NIDCD.
This is a plain language guide to research and why it is important. The government is asking people what kind…
We are naming ourselves. And we choose our words with great care. Our decisions are guided by respect for the diversity of our community and for every person’s right to choose the words they use for themselves.
Content Warning: This post discusses police brutality against disabled people. On January 26, 2023, police in Huntington Park, California, fatally…
CommunicationFIRST Celebrates Disability Voting Rights Week with REV UP “Vote as if your life depends on it … because it…
Twelve-year-old AAC user Leo True-Frost participates in virtual learning with his father, Jim True-Frost, supporting him. In November and December…
These nine studies, published between May and December 2020, tell us people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (including those who rely on AAC) are between 1.7 and 16 times more likely to die from COVID if they get it than those who do not have I/DD.
In response to multiple requests, we’ve prepared a resource to help our student members (US residents who cannot rely on…
We have received multiple calls from around the country about overly restrictive hospital “no-visitor” policies. These policies often allow visitors for patients without disabilities, including infants, children, women giving birth, and those at the end of life, but prevent access to the support people necessary for patients with disabilities.
CommunicationFIRST has prepared a COVID-19 Communication Rights Toolkit, recognizing that our population—people who face significant barriers being understood with speech and accessing effective communication supports in the best of times—is likely to face even greater barriers to accessing our necessary communication supports if we are hospitalized due to a coronavirus infection.