My Thoughts on the 2026 AAC Awareness Month Theme
This morning I said good morning to my family. I sent a few texts. I answered an email that could not wait. None of that felt remarkable, and that is exactly the point.
ISAAC, the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, has announced the theme for its 2026 Virtual Conference and for AAC Awareness Month: “AAC in Everyday Life: Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond.” The ISAAC conference will take place online on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 10–11, 2026. When I read the theme, I had to stop for a second. AAC stands for augmentative and alternative communication. It covers any tool a person uses to communicate when speech is not enough. AAC looks different for everyone. Some people type or use speech-generating technology, as I do. Others use symbols, sign language, or other systems.
For me, it is not something I think about once in a while. It is how I do every ordinary thing. It really is my everyday life.
Today: from letter board to head tracking
I have used AAC for more than twenty years. When I was ten, I had surgery to remove a brainstem tumor. This left me with a speech disability, quadriplegia, a tracheostomy, shallow breathing, and vocal cord paralysis.
Back then, my AAC was a letter board. Someone would hold it up in front of me. I would work through the alphabet one letter at a time. They watched and tried to guess the word I was building. I would blink to show each letter. When the guess was wrong, we started over.
I remember one afternoon my mom was holding the board for me. Partway through a sentence, she just could not keep up anymore and walked away.
I never got to finish what I wanted to say.
That is the part of AAC people do not see. It is slow. It takes a long time. It is hard on everyone involved.
I did not even know it was called AAC back then. I just knew it was slow, and that I had so much more to say than I could get out.
Today my AAC looks very different. I type on an on-screen keyboard using head movements. A camera tracks how I move my head and moves the cursor with it. I select letters one at a time, the same way I always have. This post alone took me several days to write. When I have enough breath to speak, I use Voiceitt. It is a speech recognition app that learns voices that sound different from what most systems expect. It’s one of several artifical intelligence (AI) speech tools out there, and it happens to be the one that works for me.
My most important AAC tools are the same as everyone else’s: texting, WhatsApp, and email. Those are my lifeline. They are normal ways of communicating, and that is exactly why I love them.
Everyday life with AAC is about how people treat you while you use communication tools. People finish my sentences before I am done typing. Some assume that because I do not speak much, I must not think much. That is the part of everyday life I most want to change. If you take one thing from this post, it’s to give AAC users time. Wait for the whole message. You will hear a lot more that way.
That is today. What about tomorrow?
Tomorrow: faster, easier, and available to everyone
AAC technology is moving fast, and I am excited about it. AI is starting to understand voices like mine. Voiceitt is proof that it can work for me. It learned my speech instead of asking me to sound like everyone else. That is the change I want to see much more of. Devices are getting smaller and smarter too.
My hope for tomorrow is simple: communication that is faster and easier for everyone who needs it. It should be available no matter where someone lives or how much money they have. We are not there yet. Funding a communication device is a difficult process. It often requires waiting, filing many appeals, and repeatedly proving your need. For me, it took months of paperwork before my device was approved.
Technology alone will not get us there, though. Tomorrow also has to mean more patience and respect from the people around AAC users. It should become normal to wait for someone’s words.
Beyond
For me, beyond is a world where nobody has to explain why they deserve to communicate. ISAAC says that people who use AAC have the human right to access, communicate, and participate. I believe that with my whole heart. Beyond means communication access everywhere: at work, at the doctor, at the store, at conferences. It means a world where AAC is so ordinary that nobody stares.
One theme, two conferences
The world I envision is not something any one organization builds alone. This year I keep noticing how many people are thinking about the same things. Here at NWACS, the Northwest Augmentative Communication Society, we chose “Joy and Connection in AAC” as our 2026 theme and for our Virtual Fall Conference on October 11, 2026. ISAAC chose AAC in everyday life. Those are really one theme, because everyday life is where joy and connection live.
Joy and connection live in the small things: ordering coffee, joking with your family, telling a story, saying “I love you.” When AAC works, and when people make room for it, those moments open up. When AAC does not work, they close. That is what could be lost. It is why these themes matter far more than any device feature or study.
If you are an AAC user reading this, I hope you know that your everyday life counts. The morning texts, the inside jokes, the hard conversations, the small talk while you wait in line. None of that is practice for real communication. It is the real thing.
And if you are someone who listens to an AAC user, you can make a bigger difference than you might realize. You might be family, a friend, a therapist, or a colleague. The waiting you do. The attention you give. The way you let a sentence finish. That is what turns a device into a conversation. Today, tomorrow, and beyond all start there, in the ordinary moments we share with each other.
I would love to hear what AAC looks like in your everyday life, and where you find joy and connection in it. Please share in the comments.
Share your comments or questions.