We are fortunate as Americans to live in a prosperous democracy. As American citizens we can participate in our democracy to let our voice be heard. This fact is more poignant for those of us who have speech disabilities and use AAC to speak. We, as people who use AAC, have to advocate for our rights and make sure government policies affect us in a positive way.

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the California state capital in Sacramento to express my opposition to durable medical equipment (DME) cuts. I went with a small delegation including Jamie Crum who is the National Sales and Marketing Manager for DynaVox, Deborah Bell who is a local SLP, and Gary Cooper as our legal representative. We all went to testify in front of the Sub Assembly Budget Committee on Health and Human Services. We only had a couple of minutes to testify at the end of the three+ hour meeting, but I was able to express to the government body how the proposed budget cuts will affect people like me who use AAC devices to communicate since DME funds are used to purchase those devices. I even got a short applause from those in the room after I finished testifying. Fortunately for us the DME budget cuts got voted down by the committee which is a good political victory for the AAC community.

I encourage other people who communicate with AAC to get involved in your local government like I did. When you see government policies and budget cuts are going to affect you and your way of life it is your right and duty to let your voice be heard by positively engaging the government. It takes all of our participation to form a more perfect democracy.