Takeaways from ATIA 2023

This week on Talking with Tech, Chris and Rachel discuss some of their takeaways from the Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2023. For those not familiar, ATIA holds a conference in Florida each year that focuses on assistive technology. Chris has attended and presented at ATIA for years, and Rachel has presented each of the last two years. Chris and Rachel touch on many of the topics they talked about with AAC users, including compensation for AAC Ambassadors, the need for more AAC users in AAC companies, ways that artificial intelligence can impact AAC, and more!

Key ideas this week:

🔑 We wouldn’t have a women’s rights group run by men, but most, if not all, AAC companies do not have an AAC user in an executive-type position in the company. The position that AAC users often fill is an “Ambassador” at conferences, which often pays very little. Chris and Rachel wonder if we can’t do a better job of compensating AAC users equitably for their involvement.

🔑 An AAC user at ATIA brought up that there aren’t always voice options for men, women, teens, children, and people who speak different dialects (e.g. African-American). Chris will start weighting voice options more when considering which AAC app to recommend.

🔑 When we are sharing or presenting, it is important to attribute ideas and images to the person who created them. Attribution allows people to find out about other content creators within the community. If you aren't sure who created something you want to share or use, try to a bit of research into who created it.

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Links from this Episode:

Futurepedia.io - Contains a large database of AI tools that is updated daily

SLPs as AAC Gatekeepers by Jordyn Zimmerman