Beyond Awareness: Build Communication Access into Everyday Systems

AAC Awareness Month 2026
Written By Carol Hegan

Awareness months can introduce important language, stories and resources to new audiences.

Their value grows when attention leads to a change that remains after the campaign ends.

For AAC Awareness Month 2026, the question is not only what people learned during October.

The more important question is:

What will be easier to access in November?

That might be:

  • a communication system that is consistently available

  • a meeting process with more than one response mode

  • a quieter service environment

  • an accessible recruitment process

  • an alternative to telephone contact

  • a feedback channel that does not depend on speech

  • a reliable charging and backup process for AAC

Awareness can begin the conversation. Systems determine whether the change continues.

Choose one system

A system can be a:

  • policy

  • process

  • routine

  • template

  • physical space

  • communication channel

  • piece of infrastructure

  • standard staff practice

Choose one system that repeatedly shapes communication.

Describe the current barrier in concrete terms.

Ask:

  • Who is excluded, delayed or placed under pressure?

  • When does the barrier occur?

  • What have people told or shown us?

  • What does the current process assume about communication?

  • Who has the power to change it?

Then define the proposed change precisely.

Instead of:

Make meetings more inclusive

Try:

Share agendas at least two working days before meetings and include options to contribute through speech, AAC, chat, writing or a response provided later.

Instead of:

Support AAC

Try:

Check AAC access, charging, positioning and backup options at the beginning of every appointment.

Specific changes can be assigned, resourced and reviewed.

Co-design the change

People affected by a communication barrier should help define both the problem and the response.

Ask how they want to contribute. Provide information in useful formats and allow enough time for meaningful involvement.

Where a person’s review or contribution involves substantial expertise, pay them for that expertise rather than treating it as an incidental request for feedback.

Co-design does not mean asking one person to represent everyone.

AAC users have different bodies, languages, communication systems, access methods, preferences and experiences.

A strong co-design process records:

  • who contributed

  • what was heard

  • what decision was made

  • what could not yet be resolved

  • how people will be updated

  • how the change will be reviewed

Assign an owner and a review date

A change without an owner can disappear into general responsibility.

Name the person or role responsible for implementation.

Record:

  • the agreed change

  • the person or role responsible

  • the resources required

  • the implementation date

  • how feedback will be collected

  • the review date

  • who will participate in the review

Make the review accessible using the same communication options the change is intended to support.

Measure what matters

Downloads, social-media reach and event attendance can show campaign activity.

They do not prove that communication access improved.

Ask:

  • Could people communicate in the way they preferred?

  • Was AAC more consistently available?

  • Did communication partners respond differently?

  • Were people given enough processing and response time?

  • Did more people participate?

  • Were any barriers reduced?

  • Was the change used consistently?

  • Did the people affected consider it helpful?

  • What unintended barriers appeared?

Quantitative information can be useful, but it should sit alongside feedback from the people who experience the system.

Keep the feedback loop open

Not every change will work the first time.

A review may show that:

  • a communication support is in the wrong location

  • a form uses unclear language

  • a meeting option is offered but not respected

  • staff need additional practice

  • the technology is inaccessible

  • the process creates a different barrier

  • the proposed solution does not reflect what people actually need

Treat this information as part of the work—not as evidence that inclusion has failed.

Adjust the change and review it again.

Decide what will remain

Awareness can begin the conversation. Systems keep it going.

Name one change. Resource it. Assign an owner. Review it with the people affected.

Then decide what to keep, what to change and what to stop.

That is how communication access moves from a campaign message into everyday life.

Choose one change to carry beyond October

Download the free Communication Access in Action resource pack and use the Beyond October Planning Worksheet to turn one commitment into an owned and reviewable action.

Download the free resource pack

Share your communication-access commitment on Social Media and tag #TheInclusiveMovement #AACAccess2026

Carol Hegan
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A Communication-Accessible Workplace