This presentation highlights the transformative role of hiring people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) as paid speakers, centering not only their lived expertise but also their right to professional inclusion, compensation, and visibility. This session brings together two experienced AAC users who are speakers in the United States Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication’s (USSAAC’s) Speaker Connection, alongside moderator Tami Altschuler, who co-developed and co-facilitates the initiative with Dr. Sarah Blackstone.
Launched by USSAAC, the Speaker Connection is a groundbreaking platform that connects people who use AAC with paid speaking opportunities. Designed to amplify the voices and perspectives of individuals who use AAC, the Speaker Connection challenges the long-standing exclusion of people with communication disabilities from educational and professional spaces. It redefines expertise to include lived experience and reframes representation as not just symbolic but structural. It also affirms that people who use AAC have the right to be hired, heard, and paid for their contributions to public dialogue and professional practice.
Through personal narratives, the two AAC user panelists will reflect on how being hired and paid to share their expertise and experiences has supported both personal growth and professional development. These reflections will explore paid speaking as a pathway to meaningful employment, disability justice, and public awareness, while also addressing common barriers to participation. Themes include reclaiming narrative authority, building confidence, navigating access needs, and challenging assumptions that frame AAC users as passive recipients rather than active contributors to the AAC community and broader society.
The moderator will offer insight into the creation and facilitation of the Speaker Connection, its evolution, and what has been learned along the way. She will discuss how centering speaker autonomy while also offering optional support with logistics, access, and compensation has proven critical to the initiative’s success. The session will emphasize the importance of removing logistical and attitudinal barriers that often prevent AAC users from being included in speaker lineups, professional trainings, and public discourse.
Importantly, this session does not position AAC users as inspirational stories for others to admire, but as professionals with insight, analysis, and leadership to offer. The speakers and moderator will outline recommended practices for hiring and collaborating with AAC speakers in ways that honor their time, access needs, and intellectual labor. They will also offer practical strategies to help event organizers, educators, and healthcare professionals create more inclusive, respectful, and equitable speaking environments across conferences, classrooms, webinars, and beyond.
