Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Communication Speed in AAC Systems
2025-10-29 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 1
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Identify what types of AI can be integrated into AAC applications.
2. Describe how AI is currently used within Cboard to enhance communication.
3. Explain the role AI plays in Cboard’s new applications (Cbuilder and FluidMind) and how these tools aim to reduce communication delays for AAC users.

Empowering Employment: Communication Ability Profile for Employees and Employers (CAPE)
2025-10-29 11:00 - 12:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 20
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. State the benefit of completing the CAPE for employees with disabilities from the research and results from a validation study of the CAPE from professionals working in the field (e.g., SLPs, transition specialists, agency workers)
2. Describe the CAPE, a fillable PDF, that supports communication between employees and employers
3. Examine a case study with a completed protocol and apply it to a PWUAAC

Utilizing Graphic Representation Systems toward Advancing AAC with AI Guided by Blissymbolics and Inclusive Design
2025-10-29 11:30 - 12:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 68
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Describe the methodology being applied to critically select and co-design AI and LLM tools in order to meet the specific and unique needs of individual AAC users.
2. Explain the different affordances of Graphic Representation Systems, including line drawings, Blissymbolics and text, and how they relate to the developmental level of AAC users.
3. Discuss the progress of the design and development of the adaptive palette with a fine-tuned Blissymbolics supported personalised LLM.

Apego y CAA: perspectivas para una intervención e investigación emergente / Attachment and AAC: Perspectives for Emerging Intervention and Research
2025-10-29 11:30 - 12:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 83
Objectives:
1. Describir la relación entre la teoría del apego y el desarrollo infantil en personas con necesidades comunicativas complejas.
2. Identificar los retos y oportunidades que plantea el fomento de un apego seguro en niños que utilizan comunicación aumentativa y alternativa.
3. Explicar cómo la incorporación de prácticas basadas en el apego puede mejorar las intervenciones de CAA y promover la conexión emocional, la corregulación y la participación inclusiva.

Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Describe the relationship between attachment theory and child development in individuals with complex communication needs.
2. Identify the challenges and opportunities in fostering secure attachment in children who use augmentative and alternative communication.
3. Explain how incorporating attachment-based practices can enhance AAC interventions and promote emotional connection, co-regulation, and inclusive participation.

Investigating Longitudinal Communication Growth in Students with Complex Communication Needs Enrolled in Partners4Literacy Classrooms
2025-10-29 11:30 - 12:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 63
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Identify communication impact from a class-wide approach to language-literacy intervention in students with complex communication needs enrolled in self-contained classrooms.
2. List at least two effective communication strategies teachers reported for embedding aided language systems into daily instructional routines that may have impacted communication outcomes.
3. Explain the results of multilevel modeling to analyze communication score changes over time.

Sixty Years of Speaking Uniquely: Told through shared memory
2025-10-29 20:00 - 20:30 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 81
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Explain the critical value of positive family support to developing an AAC user’s own capabilities and their positive and productive relationship with their technology.
2. Discuss the importance of rich and comprehensive communication and language experiences in an AAC user’s formative years.
3. Discuss the need for a lifetime reinforcing social network to enable an AAC user to realize their full potential.

“CAAamigos Angelman: Juntos en la Lectura y la Comunicación en Latinoamérica”
2025-10-29 20:00 - 21:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 46
Objectives:
1. Comprender la estructura y dinámica de grupos de lectura con CAA online.
2. Analizar resultados y evidencias del impacto de un proyecto colaborativo internacional para diseñar iniciativas similares en sus propios entornos.
3. Aplicar estrategias de alfabetización emergente y CAA para replicar el proyecto en sus propios contextos.

Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Describe the structure and dynamics of online AAC reading groups.
2. Analyze results and evidence from an international collaborative project to design similar initiatives in their own settings.
3. Apply emergent literacy and AAC strategies to replicate the project in their own contexts.

Achieving True Educational Inclusion for the Most Complex Students: It’s Possible!
2025-10-29 20:00 - 21:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 67
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Outline three actionable strategies to promote effective academic and social inclusion for students with multiple challenges, including visual impairments and complex communication needs requiring alternative access methods.
2. Describe three “on the spot” accommodations that can be utilized to support a child with complex communication needs in accessing the general education curriculum.
3. Discuss 3 real life examples of measurable goals for inclusion that will encourage the appropriate implementation, teaching methods and use of accommodations in general education.

Helping Support Staff and Individuals with Complex Communication Needs via an Ongoing, Collaborative, and Project-Oriented Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC) and Assistive Technology (AT) Training Program
2025-10-29 20:00 - 21:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 77
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. describe the underlying theoretical and practical rationale, connections to related literate, and the components of the project-oriented AT/AAC training program
2. review examples of self-study activities and methods used to revise components of a staff training program developed and implemented by educators from Bridgewater State University (BSU) and LifeStream, Inc.
3. evaluate samples of AT/AAC project materials, and participant testimonials in relation to methods to promote transfer/generalization.

Reimagining AAC: Using Artificial Intelligence to Support Idiosyncratic Communication Gestures
2025-10-29 20:00 - 21:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 118
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Describe at least 3 communication challenges faced by individuals with motor and/or visual impairments when using traditional aided and unaided AAC systems.
2. Explain how wearable sensor-based technologies and artificial intelligence can be used to detect and interpret individualized body-based communicative movements.
3. Identify 2 potential community applications of AI-powered gesture recognition tools in real-world AAC scenarios and articulate ways to integrate these technologies into inclusive practice settings.

Create-Connect-Communicate
2025-10-29 20:00 - 21:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Sponsored by
Session ID: 125
Objectives:
1. Identify at least three different purposes for use of GoTalk Connect.
2. Describe one or more ways the power of accessing communication system on web based platform to individual hardware is versatile.
3. List a minimum of two concepts to create inclusivity.
*This session is not eligible for ASHA CEUs.
Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gDA2vgShTQuuiBpr6CSFQA

Building AAC Capacity in Rural Northern Alberta: An Inclusive, Interdisciplinary, and Practice-Oriented Model
2025-10-29 20:30 - 21:30
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Session ID: 112
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. List the key components of a practice-oriented, interdisciplinary capacity-building model for supporting AAC in rural school settings.
2. Summarize the collaborative process for developing individualized learning profiles for students with complex communication needs.
3. Identify at least three evidence-informed strategies used to build capacity among educators and educational assistants to support AAC implementation.
4. Describe common challenges and solutions encountered when implementing inclusive AAC practices in remote or underserved school environments.

Understanding How Mandarin-Speaking Preschoolers Acquire Spatial Prepositions: A Scoping Review
2025-10-29 21:00 - 21:30 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 107
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Describe the age effect of spatial preposition acquisition for Mandarin-speaking preschoolers;
2. Differentiate between Chinese and English in spatial preposition usage;
3. Discuss the potential for the employment of technologies in spatial preposition acquisition.

Harnessing Eye Gaze Technology for the iPad: Tools, Tips, and Real-Life Applications
2025-10-29 21:00 - 22:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 36
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Describe the current landscape of eye tracking technology on the iPad platform, including compatible hardware, the capabilities introduced with iOS 18, and the functional scope of available tools.
2. Demonstrate effective use of Apple’s built-in eye tracking features, external eye tracking devices, and AAC applications to support personalized access and communication strategies.
3. Evaluate real-world case studies and participate in a live demonstration to synthesize theoretical knowledge and practical skills for integrating eye gaze technology into AAC and access-focused interventions.
4. List 5 available tools on the iPad platform and state the functional scope of each.

Building Inclusive AAC Systems: Strategies for Diversity and Cultural Relevance
2025-10-29 21:00 - 22:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 123
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Explain the truth behind at least 2 myths of multilingualism and augmentative and alternative communication.
2. Demonstrate how to use 2 best practices to plan a therapy session for a culturally diverse learner that is relevant and respectful
3. Describe how to integrate 1 device feature and at least 1 culturally inclusive best practice into clinical sessions.

Investigating profiles of children who use AAC: A Retrospective Chart Review
2025-10-29 21:30 - 22:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 40
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Identify the need for research that discusses key variables in AAC assessment and intervention that may inform dosage and type of services.
2. Describe the results of a retrospective chart review exploring variables that may inform length of treatment and models of care for patients who use AAC.
3. Discuss variables in AAC service delivery that may impact treatment frequency and transitions between models of care leading to discharge from therapy services.

AI and AAC: Is It Going to be Star Trek or Bladerunner?
2025-10-29 21:30 - 22:30 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 75
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. List 3 types of AI.
2. Identify 3 examples of AI supporting people who use AAC.
3. Predict 2 possible outcomes of future AI applications/realities.

From Recommendations to Policy: Advancing Communication Access Through the North American Alliance for Communication Access (NAACA)
2025-10-29 22:00 - 22:30 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 113
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Identify key components of effective Communication Access Guidelines for individuals who use AAC in in-person and virtual professional settings.
2. Describe the collaborative process between NAACA and ISAAC in refining and transitioning Communication Access Guidelines from recommendations to formal organizational policy.
3. Apply at least two strategies or resources shared in the session to enhance communication access and participation for AAC users in their own organizational or event planning practices.

Beyond Presence: Redefining Inclusion and Self-Advocacy Through the Lens of an AAC User
2025-10-29 22:00 - 23:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 55
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Explain how inclusion is a mindset rather than a place, and describe how meaningful inclusion differs from mere physical space.
2. Describe the continuum between independence and interdependence, and reflect on how personal definitions of independence shape support strategies for AAC users.
3. Identify practical ways to foster self-advocacy in AAC users, including modeling assertiveness, teaching pragmatic communication skills, and leveraging strategies/tools like AAC, UDL, and AEM.

Making Self-Advocacy Accessible: A Collaboration in AAC and Education
2025-10-29 22:30 - 23:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 106
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. List at least three ways AEM can enhance communication, participation, or literacy for students who use AAC.
2. Describe two or more specific strategies for adapting instructional materials to be accessible for AAC users in middle and high school.
3. Consider a sample educational resource and propose 1 modification that aligns with universal design principles and individual AAC needs.

Panel: Things I Wish My Communication Partners Knew
2025-10-29 22:30 - 2025-10-30 00:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 122
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Describe the technical and personal complexities of AAC devices, including common misconceptions and individual variations in AAC use, to support evidence-based practice with AAC users.
2. Identify and implement respectful communication strategies that accommodate diverse communication needs, including appropriate pacing, patience, and clarification techniques when interacting with AAC users.
3. Apply principles of inclusive communication to promote full participation and autonomy of AAC users across various settings (workplace, community, family), while respecting personal boundaries and privacy.
4. Evaluate their own communication practices and develop adaptable, person-centered approaches that provide both technical and emotional support to AAC users in diverse communication contexts.

Revolutionizing Augmentative and Alternative Communication with Generative Artificial Intelligence
2025-10-29 23:00 - 23:30 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 4
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Discuss two significant benefits of Generative AI for AAC users.
2. Identify two key technologies that can be integrated with generative AI to improve AAC devices.
3. Describe two effective approaches to ensure AAC user autonomy when using Generative AI-enhanced communication systems.

AAC as a Tool for Feelings, Regulation and Problem Solving
2025-10-29 23:00 - 2025-10-30 00:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 53
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Discuss and discover the personalised language AAC users really need to express how they feel.
2. Describe how we can integrate describing and understanding body signals and link to emotions.
3. Consider strategies for supporting emotional regulation and problem solving.

COMUNICACIÓN AUMENTATIVA Y ALTERNATIVA ATENCIÓN TEMPRANA CENTRADA EN LA FAMILIA: UNA PROPUESTA DE INTERVENCIÓN
2025-10-29 23:30 - 2025-10-30 00:00 | Online (Zoom)
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Session ID: 47
Objectives:
1. El/la Profesional será capaz de diseñar intervenciones individualizadas de CAA en atención temprana, aplicando principios basados en la evidencia y considerando las necesidades comunicativas, sensoriales, motoras y cognitivas del niño y su contexto familiar y educativo.
2. El/la profesional demostrará competencia para seleccionar y adaptar herramientas tecnológicas de CAA (dispositivos, apps, softwares) apropiadas a las capacidades del usuario, respetando criterios éticos, funcionales y de accesibilidad.
3. El/la profesional podrá implementar estrategias colaborativas transdisciplinares, promoviendo la participación activa de las familias y otros profesionales (educadores, terapeutas, cuidadores) en la planificación, ejecución y evaluación del programa de intervención.
4.El/la profesional analizará críticamente los resultados de la intervención en CAA, utilizando herramientas de evaluación funcional y escalas validadas para ajustar los objetivos terapéuticos y favorecer la comunicación funcional del niño en sus entornos naturales.

Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Implement individualized AAC interventions in early childhood, applying evidence-based principles and considering the child’s communicative, sensory, motor, and cognitive needs within their family and educational context.
2. Explain how to select and adapt AAC technological tools (devices, apps, software) appropriate to the user’s abilities, respecting ethical, functional, and accessibility criteria.
3. Describe how to implement transdisciplinary collaborative strategies, promoting active participation of families and other professionals (educators, therapists, caregivers) in planning, executing, and evaluating the intervention program.
4. Critically analyze AAC intervention outcomes using functional assessment tools and validated scales to adjust therapeutic goals and support the child’s functional communication in natural environments.
