Tenth Annual AAC Town Hall Meeting at Closing The Gap 2026

Presenter(s)

Event Details

Topic:

augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)

Format:

networking session / discussion

Subject Level:

n/a

Age Span:

grades 7-12
adult

Target Audience:

AT specialist
autism specialist
consultant
deaf / hard of hearing
educator
family member / caregiver
healthcare administration
K-12 administration
occupational therapist
paraprofessional
physical therapist
special educator
speech language pathologist
teacher of the visually impaired
university professor / personnel
vision impairment specialist

Professional Development Credits

IACET CEUs:

0.3

ACVREP CEs:

2.5

Presentation Length: 2hrs 30mins

Location:

Verandas 2, 4

Description:

The 10th Annual Minnesota AAC Town Hall Meeting features a discussion for people who communicate using AAC to share their perspectives. If you use AAC, you are encouraged to join and add to the discussion! Other Closing the Gap attendees are invited to attend to learn about AAC from people who use AAC. Cole Sorensen and Donnie Denome will facilitate this year’s event by asking the following questions: What is your name and what’s one thing you want to tell us about yourself? What are some things that you care about that are important to you? If you could live anywhere and with anyone, what would be your perfect home? What new feature would you create to make your AAC system better? What advice would you give to a new AAC user? What do you hope your life will look like in the future?

Learning Outcomes:

As a result of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Describe the perspectives of different individuals who use AAC to communicate.

• List benefits and challenges of using AAC to communicate.

• Discuss the social communication characteristics of an event where all participants use AAC to communicate.

Disclosures:

Financial Disclosure: Donnie TC Denome is employed by and receives a salary from the State of Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. They also occasionally perform freelance accessibility consulting and remediation services under contract, including previously with AAC company AssistiveWare. They are presenting at Closing the Gap in a personal capacity.

Non-financial Disclosure: Donnie TC Denome is an AAC user who has used a variety of different AAC methods, systems, and applications. They currently use a Zuvo 12 dedicated device from Smartbox/Talk to Me Technologies running Grid 3.
Financial Disclosure: Cole Sorensen is employed by and receives a salary from the State of Minnesota Department of Human Services. He also occasionally performs freelance consulting services under contract, including previously with AAC company AssistiveWare. He is presenting at Closing the Gap in a personal capacity.

Non-financial Disclosure: Cole Sorensen is an AAC user who uses a Forbes ProSlate dedicated device running Proloquo4Text and other AssistiveWare software.
Jolene Hyppa-Martin, PhD, CCC-SLP, is a Speech-Language Pathologist and is employed as an Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and has no other relevant financial or non-financial disclosures.
Deanna Morrow, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a Speech-Language Pathologist and is employed by the St. Paul Public Schools and has no other relevant financial or non-financial disclosures.