L.A. Metro’s Public Safety Advisory Committee:
On March 16, 2022, our Vice-President, Cynde, invited our President, Kathleen, to speak at Metro’s Public Safety Advisory Committee on the topic of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices. It was felt as essential to educate the PSAC on the fact that some individuals with disabilities communicate in non-traditional methods, i.e. with AAC devices or other methods.My focus was not only on various types of augmentative communication, but also on how best to accommodate individuals who use these methods of communication in the case of an emergency. I was asked to explain what augmentative communication is and to share the different methods of augmentative communication that individuals use. I was also asked to share my experience of how others react to my alternative mode of communication. Due to mostly being…