[Podcourse] Advocacy in Action: Securing and Sustaining AAC Use

In this podcourse, I interview Rachel Zukose, an ASHA-certified SLP in New York who works in a special-needs school and a medical private practice, about advocacy in action for AAC/assistive technology across school, therapy, and home.

Rachel shares cases of school pushback (refusing AAC evals, IEP resistance, and cell phone bans), contrasts smoother adult AAC experiences, and highlights barriers such as parent concerns, lack of team carryover, charging, and limited device knowledge.

Strategies include team-wide shared Google Docs for programming requests, parent/staff trainings, low-tech backups, consistent modeling, home “base” locations for devices, leveraging IDEA and state law, using insurance when needed, and providing advocacy resources and templates.