Communication First

“A copy of the form 990 is reviewed by each voting member of the governing body 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.”

“Communicationfirst is the only nonprofit organization led by and dedicated to protecting the human and civil rights and advancing the interests of the estimated 5 million people in the united states who cannot rely on speech alone to be heard and understood due to disability or other condition, regardless of cause or age of onset. Communicationfirst is a cross-disability, cross-generational, multi-racial, and multicultural disability-led civil rights organization. We promote systemic change through public engagement and education, policy and practice reform, and legal advocacy. Members of our community are regularly denied the tools and support we 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 The unwarranted assumptions, stereotypes, and discrimination our constituents experience often stem from outdated and hard-wired policies and practices of federal, state, and local governmental entities. It is the norm for us 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 us. Communicationfirst 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, 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 ghting to change hearts and minds, and to build a world that centers justice, community, dignity, and humanity. And we are just getting started. In 2024, in the area of public engagement and awareness, communicationfirst continued to use the power of digital storytelling to begin to shatter the dominant societal narrative about people with speech-related disabilities. We hired our first communications director to enable us to expand our message, reach, and impact. We are developing the #visibleaac image repository to show the diversity of aac users. We created a comprehensive resource about organizing and hosting online meetings with aac users. We released the latest in the see us, hear us film series, this one featuring communicationfirst co-founder, trailblazer, and activist bob williams. We hosted a free public webinar to platform that film in october 2024 and featured two survivors of the district of columbia's forest haven institution that bob helped close. In 2024, communicationfirst's work was recognized by the white house by invitations to its co-founders and board chair to participate in its ada and disability pride month celebration on the south lawn. Communicationfirst was also awarded the annual nothing about us without us award from the autistic self advocacy network. In 2024, in the area of policy and practice reform, communicationfirst continued to promote the use of participatory action research with people who need and use aac. We collaborated with the rehabilitation engineering research center (rerc) on aac (currently housed at the pennsylvania state university) to organize the first-of-its-kind future of aac research summit in arlington, virginia, where the majority of the presenters we”