Communication First

05/31/2026

So well deserved!

05/29/2026

“For the first 18 years of Zimmerman’s life, professionals assumed she was too intellectually disabled to meaningfully communicate. Access to augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC, opened the world to her. Now, she pushes to get people like her access to different forms of communication so they can speak for themselves too.”

As the country marks 250 years, The 19th is centering the women and LGBTQ+ people whose lives and work have challenged this nation to make good on promises it has yet to extend to all.

05/25/2026

“Every message already takes attention, motor planning, & time,” says Hari Srinivasan, Neuroscience Ph.D. candidate & AAC user. “When technology adds corrections & guesswork, it compounds that effort.” He explains how engineered exclusion harms AAC users: https://lnk.to/desdig.

[Image: Wearing a dark cap and light brown jacket, Hari Srinivasan stands inside stone castle ruins along the coast of Northern Ireland.]

05/25/2026

“Within five minutes of meeting, we were having a conversation. It wasn’t about the state of world politics — as Bex says, she’d like to have more complex discussions but she restricts herself because of the time and effort involved — but we chatted a bit. ‘Trying to get people to learn the system has been a six-year battle,’ she says. ‘People don’t necessarily sympathise because they have absolutely no idea what it feels like to want to say something but you can’t.’”

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/life-with-locked-in-syndrome-despite-eveything-you-are-alive-ggnpmsdjt?shem=rimspwouoe,

Matt Rudd has remarkable conversations with three Britons who, after life-changing accidents, have fully active minds but cannot move or speak, and can communicate only via the blink of an eye

05/21/2026

Father’s Day will be here sooner than you think. Be ready to show the father figures in your life some love. Get them (and the whole family!) CommunicationFIRST gear to help us win the fight for communication rights and access: lnkfi.re/c1shp.

[Image 1: A grandfather wearing a CommunicationFIRST shirt bends down on one knee and holds his granddaughter who is a toddler with a CommunicationFIRST button in her hand. The two of them are in a yard with lush trees.

Image 2: A young AAC user sits with his AAC device mounted in front of him, and he happily waves. His smiling dad squats down beside him. The pair wear CommunicationFIRST shirts and pose in front of windows letting in natural light.]

05/14/2026

Want to learn more about advocacy by & for people with speech-related disabilities? Subscribe to our newsletter! A few times each month, get updates on calls to action, programming, & the latest from our colleagues. lnkfi.re/nc1st

📸: photo from DJ Reinhardt

[Image: A person sits in a powerchair with an AAC device in front of them, looking up at a teenager who looks back at them.

05/09/2026

Welcome our new Board Treasurer,Shubha Balabaer! They are a disability advocate, social & racial justice activist, & parent to a nonspeaker. They help other parents connect to a broader disability justice movement & ways of disability-centered parenting. https://lnk.to/shubha

[Image: Shubha Balabaer wears big, fashionable sunglasses and a Disability Culture Lab T-shirt that says, “cure ableism” five times, each in a different color to make a rainbow.]

05/06/2026

We are sharing this opportunity on behalf of our Advisory Council member, Niko Boskovic!

FAQ 4: What will be the structure of the day?

The schedule for the day will be structured as a non-disabled conference might be in that we have a vision of what we hope to see during each session. All of this comes from attendees who expressed an overwhelming desire to connect with and support other spellers and typers. As a way to grow those connections, the morning session’s time will be dedicated to hearing about each other and the topics for which they prepared responses. At the end of the morning, the attendees will pick two or three topics to discuss after lunch.

The afternoon session will explore these topics with the question, ‘What does a world built for nonspeakers look like?’ This session will be open spelling/typing, and we expect it to be energetic, probably loud, and definitely affirming of the experiences and personal views of nonspeakers.

One reason we organized the summit this way is to honor the knowledge we each carry from our experiences as autistic nonspeakers. Second, there had to be an acknowledgement of ‘crip time,’ which is the additional time, energy, and resources disabled people have to allot for when navigating an ableist world.

For this summit we are, in the literal sense, asking many hands to make light work by inviting each attendee to be a panelist to whatever degree they can or want. This means that if your body needs a break, you can walk to the creek or do the forest trail without feeling like you’re missing a lot. In fact, we plan to transcribe the open spelling portion and make a transcript available to attendees (minus people’s names) so that spellers who take a break can do so easily and naturally.

FAQ 5: What is the schedule for the day?

9:30-10am check-in; see the space and meet the animals

10am-12:30pm morning session

lunch break

1-3pm afternoon session

TO REGISTER: https://autismmustangalliance.org/retreaters/

[Image description: official Summit flyer features dark red font against a grey background. It reads "Autism Mustang Alliance presents SEEN. HEARD. BELIEVED. Spellers & Typers Advocacy Summit." "This is for all nonspeaking autistics of any age who are interested in advocating for our rights to be who we are and who we can be with the right supports." Mulino, Oregon 15 August 2026 10:00 am - 3:00 pm. "Curated and directed by Niko Boskovic, nonspeaking autistic advocate and writer. Registration is free for autistic individuals of all ages who are nonspeaking, minimally speaking, or unreliably speaking, and for their support people who will accompany them. Please find the registration form on our website." www.autismmustangalliance.org [LS]]

p.s. [Image description of the image within the flyer: Niko is standing in a field with trees in the background. The sunset is hued orange, pink, and yellow. Niko is standing in the foreground looking slightly to the side while holding his transparent letterboard. There is a horse grazing in the background. [LS]]