My Farewell to My Storytelling Fellowship
It is time to say goodbye to my Story Telling Fellowship with Making Contact. I had amazing time producing the radio segment on changing the public’s perception of people who use Augmentative Alternative Communication (A.A.C.) with the Making Contact staff, most notably George Lavender and Kwan Booth. They both assisted me greatly in producing and marketing my radio segment and I owe them gratitude for the segment’s success. I...
The Ten A.A.C. Commandments
So as I come to a close of my Storytelling Fellowship with Making Contact I am thankful for the great experience I had with the program staff on making my radio piece. As part of my fellowship I was able to record my first rap song with an A.A.C. twist on it. It is over a familiar Biggie beat. Here it is: If you like my song be sure to tune in to listen to my radio segment about the public’s perception of people who use A.A.C....
My Krip-Hop Performance: Insights of a Spoken Word Artist Who Use A.A.C.
Two weeks ago I had the privilege to perform in the Krip-Hop Nation Bay Area Mini-Tour that honored Bay Area musical pioneer, Joe Capers. Joe Capers was a talented musical producer from Oakland who was blind and worked with the likes of MC Hammer and En Vogue when they were starting out in their careers. Leroy Moore, also a co-founder of Sins Invalid, organized this Mini-Tour together bringing together artists with disabilities from...
The politics of speaking with an automated A.A.C. voice
As a person who has used an A.A.C. device for most of my life I have become used to speaking with a computerized, automated voice. So when I encounter people in public, they barely hear my natural voice since I cannot speak words eligibly due to my cerebral palsy. People then identify my voice with the voice of the A.A.C. device, which poses a few political and philosophical questions. For example, is my voice tied to A.A.C....
A Talk with Samuel Sennott, Co-creator of Proloquo2go
A couple of weeks ago I had a pleasure and opportunity to interview Samuel Sennott, the co-creator of one of the first Augmentative Alternative Communication (A.A.C.) apps, Proloquo2Go. Mr. Sennott, an assistant professor at Portland State University, expounds upon in our interview how he entered the A.A.C. field, the story behind developing Proloquo2Go, and what he thinks the future of A.A.C. technology will be. Please view our...
Why focus on the normally under represented community of A.A.C. in the media?
As I prepare for my show for Making Contact on the public view of people who use A.A.C., I would like to comment on why covering the under represented A.A.C. community in the media is so important. People who use A.A.C., especially those who have both speech disabilities and mobility disabilities, are very marginalized in our society and thus do not get profiled in our media too much except when we are seen as victims or as doing...
