Communication First

“A copy of the form 990 is reviewed and voted on by the each voting member of the governing body at a board meeting prior to being filed with the irs.”

“The secretary and executive director monitor the annual affirmation deadline for each board member and send reminders as necessary.”

“Governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are made available upon request.”

“To protect the rights and advance the interests of the estimated 5 million children and adults in the united states who cannot rely on speech alone to be heard and understood, through public education, systemic reform of policy and practice, and legal advocacy.”

“Communication first is the only disability-led nonprofit organization focused on protecting the human and civil rights and advancing the interests of the estimated 5 million children and adults in the united states who cannot rely on speech alone to be heard and understood due to disability or other condition and regardless of cause or age of onset. Communication first is a cross-disability, cross-generational, multi-racial, and multicultural disability-led civil rights organization. We promote systemic change through public engagement, policy and practice reform, and legal advocacy. Members of our community are regularly denied the tools and support they need to effectively communicate; wrongfully assessed and stigmatized for life; deprived of an inclusive, equally effective education; segregated and institutionalized; isolated and excluded from everyday life, including the ever-more-important digital world; subjected to inferior health care; abused and victimized; and far worse. Research and lived experience suggest that black, brown, multilingual, and other multiply marginalized individuals are both more likely to need augmentative and alternative communication (aac) at some point in life and to experience harsh and compounding forms of societal oppression and discrimination as a result. The unwarranted assumptions, stereotypes, and discrimination we still experience often stem from the outdated and hard-wired policies and practices of federal, state, and local governmental entities. It is still the norm for countless numbers of our constituents to be ostracized and perceived and treated as less than: as having less intellect, less to say, and no need or right to do so - all, ironically, because others cannot understand them. Communication first is transforming the national conversation about the legal rights and lived experiences of people who need and use aac tools and supports. We are ensuring conversations at the federal and state level around policy issues that impact us - guardianship, access to health care, restraint and seclusion, education, access to justice, employment, institutionalization, effective communication, and more include our voices and address our interests. We are ambitious and unrelenting disabled advocates who believe in radical inclusion and acceptance. We are fighting to change hearts and minds, and to build a world that centers justice, community, dignity, and humanity. And we are just getting started. In 2023, in the area of public engagement and awareness, communication first continued to use the power of digital storytelling to begin to shatter the dominant societal narrative about people with speech-related disabilities. Working with dc-based schooltalk, inc., a nonprofit dc-based community organization that works with young adults with developmental disabilities to build filmmaking-related job skills (among others), we were awarded funding from the district of columbia's developmental disabilities council and humanities dc to fund the third film in the see us, hear us series, this one profiling bob williams, the only person to reach the us government's senior executive service to rely on aac, and a prominent national civil and disability rights advocate (https://communicationfirst.org/see-us-hear-us/). The see us, hear us films, as well as the 2021 film listen (https://communicationfirst.org/listen), have been incorporated into courses across the country and have gained large online audiences, praise, and multiple awards. In 2023, we also created a now widely-referenced resource called "the words we use" to explain why communication first chooses to use and not use certain terminology (including "nonverbal") to describe our population. We also wrote about the fact that digital accessibility for aac users is a human rights issue, and about the connection between police brutality and speech-related disability. And we were honored to receive an award from the association of university centers o”