#TalkingAAC 2025

My daughter Maggie has finished school and transitioned to life in the community. But I was taken aback when she was described as a “success story”, because she is still an emergent AAC user. This session will ask you to challenge the definition of “AAC success” in the context of academic learning, friendships, autonomy, and being understood.

In this session, I will discuss my lived experience growing up with cerebral palsy and learning disabilities, including dyslexia and dyscalculia. This presentation has a triumphant note where the underdog overcomes ableism and discrimination during my High School years. I will explain having deep depression when I felt no one believed in me anymore. I will describe rising from the ashes of ableism and misdiagnosis of an intellectual disability based on a standardized test, to graduating Cum Laude from Whitewater University. I will also describe my journey of accepting my augmentative and alternative communication device as my voice. I will also talk about my other primary form of communication and my journey to become a professional artist with the encouragement and support of my art professors. I will discuss how I do my art-making and describe my creative process while making the art installment, My Augmented and Alternative Voice. I will explain how my father invented my adaptive tools for art-making. I will discuss being the first AAC user to participate fully in the Wisconsin LEND program. I will share my joy of discovering a secret skill of mentoring children with communication devices. I will close on getting hired as a peer mentor at WI LEND and becoming a University of Wisconsin, Madison employee. The audience will learn from the experience of a successful AAC user and gain insights into having Cerebral Palsy with learning disabilities, including dyslexia and dyscalculia. They will leave with understanding about the impact of standardized testing on the conversation surrounding disability rights. They will learn more about alternative forms of communication including AAC and art, which can open up the world for anyone struggling to express who they are.