Talking With Tech AAC Podcast

This week, we share Rachel’s interview with Anand (@anandmurthy) and Amanda Murthy (@amandajanemurthy)! Anand and Amanda’s son, Maverick, is affected by infantile spasms, a rare form of epilepsy.  Maverick has undergone multiple brain surgeries and faced numerous challenges related to his condition. Anand and Amanda share about their journey to raise awareness about infantile spasms, the importanc...

Jessica Gerth and Jaclyn Lewis   This week, we share Chris’s interview with Jessica Gerth and Jaclyn Lewis! Jessica (@chaoscommunicationconverse) is a speech pathologist who utilizes TTRPGs to enhance communication and social skills among her students. Jaclyn (@wranglerofchaos) is a writer, youth worker, and game master who wrote "Rolling with the Youth," a book focusing on fostering safe and fun...

This week, we share Rachel’s interview with Amanda Diekman! Amanda (@lowdemandamanda)is an autistic adult and parent of three neurodivergent children who advocates for a shift away from traditional parenting models that prioritize control and demands. She suggests that accommodating children's needs and reducing expectations can foster better emotional connections. The interview underscores the si...

This week, we interview Brianna Hughes and Tiffany Rezvani! Brianna and Tiffany are Speech-Language Pathologists and AAC Specialists based in Northern California. They share all about the free AAC screening tool they created, called AAC Screening, that helps educators and clinicians efficiently identify students who may benefit from AAC devices!   Before the interview, Chris shares some exciting n...

This week, Chris interviews Marnina Allis and Marisa Portanova, two speech-language pathologists at Blythedale Children’s Hospital, the only independent specialty children’s hospital in New York State! Marnina and Marisa share about their role on the core assistive technology (AT) team, ideas for supporting AAC users and their families outside the hospital, taking a team-based approach to treatmen...

This week, we share a series of “Small Talks,” e.g. short recordings (less than 15 minutes) about a single topic of interest with guests Amy Mayer, Judy Schoonover, Remi Moran, and Tiffany Zaugg!   Before the Small Talks, Rachel discusses presenting ant an online autism summit about some of the fundamentals of AAC. Meanwhile, Chris shares about recording some trainings on the “specific language sy...

This week, Rachel and Chris interview the superstar members of the “Stepping Into AAC” project - Carole Zangari, Tabi Jones-Wohleber, Rachel Langley, and Michaela Ball! The “Stepping Into AAC” team shares about the core mission of the project: to introduce people to AAC, to guide them through the early months of using these new communication tools and strategies, and to offer resources to engage s...

This week, we present a Recast episode of Rachel's interview with Rachel Dorsey, an amazing autistic SLP who teaches courses on neurodiversity and goal writing. Recast episodes are previous episodes of TWT that Chris and Rachel want to highlight. In this Recast, Rachel Dorsey shares her perspectives on neurodiversity, how to help shift the perspectives of others to better affirm neurodiversity, th...

This week, we present a Recast of Chris’s interview with Dr. Rebecca Moles! Recast episodes are previous episodes from the early days of TWT that Chris and Rachel want to highlight! In this Recast, Dr. Moles shares the importance of communication and AAC in preventing child abuse, the categorization of abuse types, the need for educators to equip children with the language necessary for self-advoc...

This week, we present a Recast of a previous “roundtable discussion” between Rachel, Chris, and previous host Lucas Stuber on early intervention and AAC! (Note: Recast episodes are episodes from the early days of TWT that Chris and Rachel want to highlight again). In this episode, Rachel shares her experiences with using AAC with very young children and discusses the benefits and challenges with e...

This week, we share a “Recast” of Chris’s interview with Kathy Howery! “Recast” episodes are episodes from the early days of Talking with Tech (with improved audio) that share important ideas Chris and Rachel want to highlight! Kathy is an AAC specialist, researcher, and educational consultant from Alberta, Canada who emphasizes the importance of understanding the lived experiences of AAC users fr...

This week, Chris interviews Caroline Woeber! Caroline is an SLP specializing in AAC at Children’s Hospital Colorado, including working at their Angelman/Chromosome 15 Disorder clinic. Caroline shares all about supporting communication and AAC in the hospital environment, training parents and caregivers about AAC, identifying next steps when teaching people with Angelman syndrome to use AAC, and mo...

This week, Chris is interviewed by Benjamin Gibbs! Benjamin is a student at George Mason University studying Assistive Technology who is completing a school project interviewing Chris, and Chris asked if the conversation could go on the podcast! Ben has cerebral palsy that affects his walking gait and verbal speech. He uses a combination of verbal speech and AAC to communicate, depending on his co...

This week, we share Chris’s interview with Amy Mayer! Amy is the founder and CEO of friEdTech ( https://friedtechnology.com/ ), a company that provides educational technology (EdTech) professional development for educators. Amy talks about her recent book, Beyond Worksheets, which provides resources for teachers to utilize EdTech tools and to inclusively redesign education for everyone! She and Ch...

This week, we share Rachel's interview with Karina Carter and Nicole Young! Karina Carter is a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) at Children’s TheraPlay , where horses are used therapeutically to support children with disabilities and/or unique needs, including complex communicators! Nicole is the mother of TY, an AAC User who is one of Karina’s clients. Karina shares all about equine speech thera...

This week, we share Rachel’s interview with the amazing Occupational Therapist (OT) Elisa Wern! Along with being a school-based OT, Elisa speaks and writes about issues related to AAC and OT, including that OTs can have a critical role in the AAC consideration and implementation process! Elisa shares ideas for supporting students with sensory processing issues, the need for OTs to get involved ear...

This week, we present Chris’s interview with some of the Fairfax County Public Schools AT Team: Jeff Sisk, Meaghan Tracy, Jennifer Carr, Ashley Kiley, and Colleen Kalamajka! They gather to share about the life of AAC/AT Specialist Jeff Powers, who passed away in 2023. They celebrate some of the many things he brought to his work with AAC, including helping people feel OK even if they don’t know ev...

This week, we share Chris’s interview with Dr. Yoosun Chung, former president of USSAAC, activist, professor at George Mason University, and AAC user! Dr. Chung shares about her journey from South Korea to the United States to learn English and pursue higher learning, her first introduction to high-tech AAC as a doctoral student in assistive technology, her work as co-chair of the 2023 ISSAAC conf...

This week, we share Rachel’s interview with Chantelle Hutchinson (@dysphagiacommunity)! Chantelle is a Speech-Language Pathologist who works with adults with acquired brain injury and progressive neurological conditions. She shares about some of the factors that make working with clients with acquired brain injuries, like traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke, unique, including: how AAC needs ca...

This week, we share part two of Rachel’s interview with Tiffany Joseph! Tiffany is an autistic mother of three neurodivergent teens, as well as an educator, advocate, and a part-time AAC User with inconsistent verbal speech.  She shares about her experience as a gestalt language processor, how she thinks AAC could help students mitigate their gestalts, her perspective on Spelling to Communicate, a...

This week, we present Part 1 of Rachel’s interview with the amazing Tiffany Joseph (@nigh.functioning.autism)! Tiffany is an autistic mother of three neurodivergent teens, as well as an educator, advocate, and a part-time AAC User with inconsistent verbal speech.  She explains more about situations when verbal speech becomes difficult, the ways that writing text out before hand helps her, strategi...

This week, Chris and Rachel interview Bob Sagoo! Bob is the father of Harchie, an 18-year-old young man with cerebral palsy who uses an AAC device with eye tracking to communicate (along with other modalities). Bob shares about Harchie’s AAC journey, Bob’s work to get Harchie mainstreamed in school, Harchie going to college, and more!   Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about delivering...

This week, we hear Chris’s interview with Beth Moulam and Joanna Holmes! Beth is a master student, former Paraolympian, a Trustee of Communication Matters (a branch of ISSAC), and patron of a charity called One Voice. She is a multi modal communicator who often uses AAC devices to communicate. Joanna (@mummyvsaac on Instagram) is the mother of Lucy, a 9-year-old multimodal communicator with a comp...

This week, Chris interviews Daniel O’Conner and Bradley Haven of All Access Life! All Access Life is a nonprofit that showcases the latest trends and movements in adaptive products and assistive technologies on their website allaccesslife.org . Daniel & Bradley share about how they met when Daniel was Bradley's Aide in high school (Bradley has nonverbal Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy), how they cam...

This week, we share Rachel’s interview with Breea Rosas! Breea is a school psychologist who works with educators on how they can implement neurodiversity affirming practices and neurodiversity affirming psychoeducation! Breea shares about the neurodiversity affirming approach and three key areas she works with educators and practitioners to address: 1) What assessments are we choosing; 2) How are...