This is a plain-language summary of a journal article. The article is one of 21 articles in a special issue of the AAC journal (Volume 41, Issue 3, 2025). All the articles are written or co-written by AAC users. The articles are free to read. Plain-language summaries of research are important for accessibility. Providing summaries in plain language helps make complex information easier to read. This helps to better understand and put the research into practice.
Summary of: Reading, Writing, and AAC Are Fundamental by Williams (2025)
Bob Williams is the co-founder of CommunicationFIRST. It is an organization that works to protect the rights and dignity of people with speech disabilities. He has spent his career fighting for better policies that help people with disabilities live and communicate independently. This is a simple summary of his article about how people who use AAC often do not get the literacy tools they need.
Literacy Skills are Not Extra
The United States has a long history of unequal access to education. Millions of adults still struggle with reading. In the past, many groups — including people with disabilities — were denied the chance to learn. Many people today who need AAC do not get enough support to learn reading and writing, even though laws like Section 504 and the ADA are meant to help.
Too often, disability is used as an excuse to deny literacy instruction. Studies show that 70–90% of people with significant disabilities have little or no reading and writing skills. This is usually because of lack of support, not because they cannot learn. Many students who use AAC finish school without basic literacy skills. This limits their independence and opportunities for the rest of their lives.
Reading and writing are not “extra” skills. They are important for safety, communication, self‑advocacy, and being part of the community. When people do not have access to literacy or language‑based AAC, they are more likely to be isolated, misunderstood, or even put in unsafe situations. Without literacy, many AAC users are unheard and unseen.
Williams and CommunicationFIRST say that major changes must happen. They call for:
- Finding out why literacy is denied. Researchers must study how current systems fail AAC users. Especially when testing tools underestimate their abilities.
- Giving literacy support across a person’s entire life. People who use AAC should get literacy help from early childhood through adulthood.
- Fighting racial and language discrimination. AAC users who are Black, Indigenous, brown, or multilingual often face unfair barriers.
- Collecting better national data. The U.S. does not count AAC users in surveys, which makes them “invisible” when decisions are made.
- Publishing public reports that show the challenges AAC users face and outline steps to protect their civil rights.
The future must be shaped with people who use AAC. They should be leaders in research, policy, education, and advocacy. Their lived experience is key to building a world where literacy and communication are truly accessible to everyone.
The message is simple: Literacy is freedom. Literacy is power. And denying it is an injustice we cannot ignore.
Citation:
Williams, B. (2025). Reading, writing, and AAC are fundamental. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 41(3), 280–282.
Access the full article: https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2025.2508492
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