Welcome to the Fall Newsletter of Wisconsin AAC Network
Click here to view the newsletter in Google Docs: Wisconsin AAC Network – Fall 2025 – Newsletter
We hope your summer was pretty good and relaxing. I have been watching Boys Meets World. For you young people and people who weren’t a kid or teenagers in the 90’s, it was a popular comedy series on ABC on their amazing lineup “TGIF”. The show is about three friends going through their teenage years. BMW has three friends and their teacher, they had so many good lessons for the AAC community. Let’s see what we can learn from Boys Meet World to help students who use AAC.
Their names are Cory Matthews, Shawn Hunter, Topanga Lawrence, and my favorite character on the show Eric Matthews. The show follows them through school years starting when they were in sixth grade and they weren’t scared to talk about hard topics including drinking, quitting school, and family issues such as divorce and living poor. As I was watching the show again, I couldn’t stop wondering about if every student who use AAC have a good friendship with someone in their life like they had on the show. Someone to eat their lunch with, someone to talk to when they were feeling down, and someone to tease when they are in class. I know I was so lucky to find some great friends in my life. They didn’t and they don’t see me as a person who have a disability. They see and saw me as a peer and that is just great. I think one of my favorite story to tell is when my best friend Logan was talking to my dad. Logan said Mike talks a lot. That is just the kind of friend he is. He is my Shawn 100%. Please support your AAC Communicator or Communicators to have these kinds of friendships. – Mike Hipple
Have you or someone you know lost their AAC system in a disaster?
USSAAC: The United States Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication has a program to provide assistance and/or replacement/repairs for AAC equipment that has been lost in disasters. Please contact them at https://aacdisasterrelief.recovers.org/
Free Communication Boards that relate to disasters and illness can be found at USSAAC’s website.
Fall Happenings
Let’s go around the state & country to see what is happening in the area of AAC during the Fall.
- September 10 (noon-1pm) Wisconsin’s AT Forward Project launches this year’s community of practice. And on September 23 (noon-1pm) – Wisconsin’s Cassie Frost is presenting on AT to Support Social/Emotional/Mental Health. Go to the website to see the full year of presentations and to register https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/sped/pdf/2025-2026_AT_Forward_CoP_Meetings.pdf
- September 12 (noon – 2pm) Teachers and Students Minspeaking Together (PRC-Saltillo webinar) Online at the Minspeak Academy. Find out more at https://www.aaclearningjourney.com/learn/courses/487/teachers-and-students-minspeaking-together-in-the-classroom
- September 28 (8:30-3:30pm Pacific Time / 10:30am – 5:30 pm Central Time) Fall conference by NWACS. Great topic!! Neurodiversity Affirming AAC: Supporting Long-Term Goals and Continued Scripting for Gestalt Language Processors
- October 7 (Noon-1pm) Our friends at AT Forward are doing a webinar about the AAC Implementation Guide and on October 15 (Noon – 1pm) They are presenting on Tear Down Reading Barriers with Bookshare.See all of the meeting scheduled at https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/sped/pdf/2025-2026_AT_Forward_CoP_Meetings.pdf
- October 20 & 21 (preconference) October 22-24 (Main Conference) We hope to see you in Minnesota this year at CTG: Closing The Gap. This annual event includes national, international, local presenters and vendors. There is a large Wisconsin contingency that meets up every year. There are many sessions on beginning and advanced practices in AAC. Local families attend and meet. The vendor hall is free. https://www.closingthegap.com/conference/?srsltid=AfmBOopU42WLv7L7kbbloCuARVhY0inUC2Zckx6J_8pkTadd4GGpatJR
- October 23 (5:30pm) USSAAC in-person Meeting during CTG (Bloomington, MN). Tracy Rackensburger will be heading up a local meeting for people to find out about the activities supported by the United States division of ISAAC. https://ussaac.org/
- October 28 & 29 (morning & evening hours) ISAAC is doing the online conference again. Registration information can be found here. https://conference.isaac-online.org/ Representatives of the WI AAC Network are doing a workshop about the process of developing local supports such as our own network. Please join us!.
- November 18-21 – OCALICON – Ohio has their annual on-line Assistive Technology Conference for 4 days. It includes AAC, literacy, access and special education practices. Several Wisconsin educators are presenting. More info at https://conference.ocali.org/
- December 2 (Noon -1pm) AT Forward AI and Special Education: Going Beyond Efficiency and Transforming Instructional Practices. As a part of the WI AT Forward Project, Frank Devereaux will present e exemplary uses of AI in various content areas, and learn concrete frameworks for effective AI integration. Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/mutNuiwuQW24NJ4IuGRyIA#/registration
- December 4&5 (in-person conference)- TAAT: Tennessee Association for Assistive Technology has their annual in-person Conference with presentations and vendors including many session on AAC. Find out more at https://www.taat.org/2025-registration-page
- If you want to share your information and story, apply to present at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhfonazJZLcPx0D-zTQbY5_3JH-NwBEqQ8ysG1LMkc7L9wRQ/viewform
Attending A National Conference
I thought I would write an article about attending a national conference. To me conferences are an excellent way to learn from the best professionals in the field, network with others that you don’t usually see, explore new assistive technology tools, and chat with your friends who are at the same conference. My first Closing The Gap was in 2017, I knew two people and I didn’t know them well. So I had a lot of time to chat with different people! Turns out that was great, because I started my network. Please chat with people that you don’t know, because you will never know where that will take you. I remember that I was talking to Caroline Ramsey Musclewhite, a big name in the community and she asked me if I wanted to be with her answering people’s questions. My friends Kelly and Sharon needed to pinch me so I knew that I wasn’t dreaming. Maybe you could get an opportunity like mine and make a good friend too. When you are deciding which workshops that you want to attend, please note the level of understanding and the topic that they will be talking about. They have this on the conference website and in the conference book/app. You want to know this, because you don’t want to go through a whole workshop without learning anything important to you. Believe me this is a bad way to spend your time and money. Please take some time to take a look at all of the details of the workshops before you get to go.
I think the exhibit hall is always the best part of the conference, especially at closing the gap, because you will get to try out different types of assistive technology, toys, and chairs. Please make sure that you spend a lot of the free time that you have in there and talk with the different companies. I hope this is helpful for some of you. If you have any questions about attending a conference, please email me or stop me at a conference!! – Mike Hipple
AAC Awareness Month Tracker for Wisconsin & tips for a successful month
October is AAC awareness month. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to tell someone about what AAC is and who can benefit from using AAC. We’re not going to write a lot about this subject, because we know that people who are reading this article know it pretty well. But guess what, we have people in our life and community who they might not know about this helpful topic and they might have someone in their life that could possibly benefit from using AAC. Think about the cashier that is checking you out at the grocery store, they might have a child that is nonverbal and they haven’t heard of a communication device before. When you talk about a communication device, they might ask you what it is because my kid can’t speak and I am dying to know what they are thinking about. That is awareness. When you use your communication device in public and someone says OMG it is so amazing that you can do that, that is awareness too. When you chat with your child about getting ready to use their device to order, that is awareness too. The last thing that we want to say about AAC awareness is anyone can do it!!! Read a story about AAC to a kindergarten, first grade, second grade, or third grade class. After this they talk about how they might have a classmate who uses this. We have a list of books with characters who use AAC and you can find it here. Please let us know what you will be doing with this document. And watch out for the winter WI AAC Network newsletter to see the list. Mike
Awareness Google from for Wisconsin AAC Network
Free AAC Awareness month Posters, Videos and Buttons can be found on the USSAAC Website (https://ussaac.org/aac-info/aac-awareness/)
💫 AAC Stars for FALL 2025
This quarter’s stars are Dani White, Stasia Wilson, Stacy Ellingen, Maddie Jo Schuessler, Jones Muich, and Max Glass. Everyone uses their communication device to tell people what they need and to advocate for others.
Congratulations to all of the stars!
Mady Jo
Dani White
If you know an AAC Star or Stars please help us to celebrate them and their amazing skills by using this link: AAC Star
For these and other AAC Awareness month images go to: