Communication First

Support AAPD’s efforts to improve services for people with health conditions, changing bodies, or changing minds. Take a 10-minute survey by Oct. 9: lnk.to/AAPDCI. It's available in English, Spanish, Easy-Read, & ASL/Audio-Described. AAC users’ perspectives are needed!

[Image: Two photos of disabled people gathered together in groups, engaging with each other. A third photo features a disabled person looking to the side while resting their hands on a cane. Below the photos are large words that say “Share your voice! Community Input Survey.” Blue, purple, and green decorative elements make up the background.]

American Association of People with Disabilities

We love to see AAC users living their best lives during back-to-school season and beyond. If you submit your photos to us, you may spot yourself in posts like this! To submit, email [email protected] with PHOTOS in the subject line, or use when you post.

📸 Image Credit: photo submitted by Jill Tullman

[Image: A boy smiles and waves, while holding his speech generating device and wearing a backpack.]

As a person who grew up nonverbal until the age of eight, I know firsthand how other people’s actions and misconceptions surrounding my disability can further disable us.

Here’s the thing that nobody will tell you about living with apraxia of speech or another disability:

I wasn’t disabled because people didn’t understand me. I had a disability… I was nonverbal, I couldn’t read until age 9, or write/spell until age 9. But society’s response to my disability could have further limited me and did.

People assumed I would never be able to read, write, or talk independently. When I was in second grade, my SLP came up to my mom while she was eating lunch with me at school. She apparently thought I couldn’t hear her.

She told my mom:

“Jordan will never talk on his own. You might as well face that. I don’t see why you keep trying.”

My mom looked it up & stood up. And she said:

“We’re not giving up on Jordan. Jordan is not falling through the cracks.”

She filed a state complaint… & she won. And for everyone who says, “you use the term winning when talking about an IEP?” Yes, because my mom won the fact one day her son would speak, read, & write. She won.

But think about what could have happened if my mom had believed her and did nothing.

Please take a moment to imagine that.

That person’s interpretation of what I could and couldn’t do could have become my reality. If the adults around me had lowered their expectations, stopped providing therapy, stopped giving me opportunities, stopped trying to get me to grade level, or stopped believing I could one day communicate, my outcome could have been completely different.

And when people pressured me to talk as a child when I physically couldn’t coordinate the movements needed to produce speech due to my CAS diagnosis, it didn’t make communication easier.

It dysregulated me.

Bad.

And when I was dysregulated, communication became even harder, but they couldn’t see that.

So, they would ask questions over & over trying to pull answers out of me, and while I wanted to respond I physically couldn’t; and I could feel myself becoming unraveled in those moments.

And then I didn’t feel safe.

So while they thought they were encouraging me to talk, sometimes their actions were doing the complete opposite.

It made me further unable to speak. It made me feel isolated in my own brain.

People’s misconceptions can change the expectations they place on us. And those expectations can change the opportunities we are given to learn.

For example:

I was labeled defiant.

And honestly? The only way I was “defiant” was by refusing to listen to the adults who told me what I would and wouldn’t be capable of.

Sometimes people with disabilities have to be defiant.

Because if we aren’t, we risk allowing someone else’s limited understanding of our disability to become the limit of our future.

There is no way in hell I was allowing anyone to limit me. Ever. Get out of my way.

I didn’t need someone to decide what I was capable of.

I needed someone to believe I was capable of more… and then give me the tools, support, safety, and time to prove it.

And that’s why I will never stop advocating for children who are being underestimated today.

Because I was one of them.

Don’t you dare limit me. Ever.

- Jordan LeVan

Our national outreach partner, Communication First, gathered staff, board members, and advisory council members to view and discuss a series of disability-themed documentary screenings as part of a nearly a year long film festival. The Ride Ahead was one of seven amazing and impactful selections!

Image Description: The top reads in bold, “CommunicationFIRST 2026 Film Festival Lineup” with the CommunicationFIRST logo featured below. The seven films appear as follows with its accompanying poster, “Sins Invalid, The Ride Ahead logo, The Reason I Jump, Păh, Life After, Deej, and Being Michelle”.

In honor of Disability Voting Rights Week this week, we are joining The American Association of People with Disabilities to invite you to become an Accessible Democracy Defender! DVRW events are happening all over the country & virtually: https://lnk.to/DVRWevents.

📸 Photo Credit: submission by Niko Boskovic

[Image: A person with long hair obscuring their face puts a ballot in a ballot box.]

“The lessons are open to anyone that has Parkinson’s and their caregivers — and actually, if other people want to join in, I don’t tell anybody no,” Lockette said. “Just make sure you have a harmonica in the key of C, and you’re all good.”

Parkinson’s can rob people’s voices. This instrument could help bring them back. “I never imagined that a simple harmonica could make such a meaningful difference in my life,” said one Parkinson's patient. “It has helped me find my voice again.”

The Ride Ahead team will host a free webinar on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 7pm EST: Air Travel While Disabled! Elizabeth Dicker, Brittanie Hernandez-Wilson, Emily Ladau, & Rosemary McDonnell-Horita will discuss ways to make flying more accessible. Register at lnk.to/ATWDis.

[Image: a promotional graphic with the title "OUR RIDE AHEAD: Air Travel While Disabled" and headshots of Rosemary McDonnell-Horita, Emily Ladau, Elizabeth Dicker, and Brittanie Hernandez-Wilson. Text below reads "September 15, 4:00 pm PST/7:00pm EST, Virtual, RSVP for FREE at rideaheadfilm.com/webinars." In the bottom right corner is the text, "with support from," and a Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation logo.]

A Joy Grant from the WITH Foundation funded nearly a year of film screenings for our team! We learned together while we viewed and discussed disability-themed documentaries. We're excited to share CommunicationFIRST's 2026 Film Festival Lineup with you: lnk.to/C1docs.

[Image: Four members of the CommunicationFIRST team gather on Zoom for a film screening. Pictured from top left to bottom right are Ren Koloni, Marrok Sedgwick, Katie Pagett, and Bre Mercier.]