Public Speaking With AAC? Sign Me Up!

By Margaret Moore, PRC-Saltillo Blogger

One of the common assumptions that people make about my use of AAC is that it limits the types of activities and discussions that I participate in. They surmise that I will not want to partake in events that require me to speak for a prolonged period or compose spontaneous responses in front of an audience. On the contrary, though, I don’t mind and sign up without hesitation for public speaking opportunities. I often deliver presentations at conferences for writing and for assistive technology on disability accommodation, accessibility, and inclusion in higher education. I am also a writer currently pursuing my Master of Fine Arts degree, so reading my poetry and prose publicly is a prominent part of my career and one that I wouldn’t want to miss. My mother has always told me that my assistive technology is meant to help me achieve my desired endeavors rather than prevent me from participating, so I have learned to devise methods to participate in speaking engagements fully with my device without the preparations becoming burdensome.

On December 12^th, for example, I gave a reading of my poetry and nonfiction writing on FUMFA Poets & Writers Live—the virtual reading series founded by alumni of my master’s program, Fairfield University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. The event was a holiday-themed open mic, and I shared two pieces of original writing. One was an excerpt from my memoir-in-progress about growing up with Cerebral Palsy, losing my father to stomach cancer before my second birthday, being raised with my brothers by a single mother, and participating in regular education, athletics, and extracurricular activities while relying on a motorized wheelchair, walker, and communication device. I was able to load the excerpt into my speech software through PRC’s Notebook feature, a process that I discussed in a previous article. This only took a matter of moments. The second piece that I shared was a digital humanities poem in the form of a video. This simply required that I prepare my Accent 1000 communication device with a statement to introduce the poem before it was played. I also programmed my device so that I could greet the co-hosts by name when my segment began and so that I could wish viewers a happy holiday season at the end. Additionally, I slowed my Accent’s voice down one notch for my reading to ensure that everybody could understand my device over the livestream. I was pleased with how my reading went that night. It can still be accessed on the FUMFA Poets & Writers Live YouTube Channel, Facebook Page, and Twitter feed.

I hope my experience inspires others to get involved with speaking engagements. We are given communication devices to share our thoughts with the world. Let’s take full advantage of that!

 Communicators In Action   -    debate, speech, public speaking, aac, language, writing, accent

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