Reach Every Voice

11/17/2025

Today we pause to honor the life and legacy of Alice Wong, a powerful voice in disability justice and the founder of the Disability Visibility Project.

We wrote this lesson —exploring her work, her storytelling, and her commitment to amplifying disabled voices—this summer and had not yet published it. Today we're sharing completely free to our community. It’s our way of continuing her mission: ensuring every voice is heard.

https://www.reacheveryvoice.org/product-page/alice-wong-disability-rights-activist-storyteller

Use code: DisabilityVisibility at checkout

11/16/2025

🎉 We turned 10 today! 🎉

Ten years ago, Reach Every Voice began with a belief — that communication is a human right, and that every learner deserves access to a voice and a meaningful education.

What started as a small idea has grown into a community of students, families, and educators who are transforming what’s possible for nonspeaking and partially speaking learners every single day.

To everyone who has been part of this journey — thank you. 💙
Here’s to a decade of communication, education, and empowerment… and to everything still to come.

11/16/2025

💙 Reach Every Voice turns 10 today — and we’re celebrating with a birthday fundraiser to support nonspeaking and partially speaking learners! 💙

What began with six local students in 2015 has grown into a community serving hundreds of learners and families, training thousands of educators, and helping make communication and grade-level learning accessible around the world.

If our work has impacted your family, your classroom, or your understanding of inclusion, we invite you to celebrate with us by supporting REV AccessAbility, our 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Your donation helps provide affordable training, coaching, and practice opportunities for the people who support nonspeaking learners every day.

Every gift makes a difference — thank you for helping us continue this work into our next decade. 💙

REV AccessAbility, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, strives to provide access to more training, coaching, and practice opportunities for those who support nonspeaking and minimally speaking students. We are committed to making these opportunities more accessible and affordable for all stakeholders.

11/16/2025

Today we pause to honor the life and legacy of Alice Wong, a powerful voice in disability justice and the founder of the Disability Visibility Project.

We wrote this lesson —exploring her work, her storytelling, and her commitment to amplifying disabled voices—this summer and had not yet published it. Today we're sharing completely free to our community. It’s our way of continuing her mission: ensuring every voice is heard.

Use code: DisabilityVisibility at checkout

This lesson invites students into the world of Alice Wong, a storyteller and activist who has spent her life amplifying the voices of disabled people. Through her projects, writing, and digital advocacy, students learn how Wong uses narrative, community, and creativity to challenge stereotypes and r...

11/16/2025

🎉 Tomorrow marks 10 years of Reach Every Voice! 🎉
For a decade, we’ve been building bridges—helping nonspeaking and partially speaking learners access communication, education, and empowerment.

From our first few students in 2015 to hundreds of families, educators, and advocates around the world today, your belief in inclusion and communication access has fueled every bit of this impact. 💙

Swipe through to see what we’ve built together over 10 years — and how your support continues to shape what’s next.

✨ Communication. Education. Empowerment.
💙 Help us continue the work: https://www.reacheveryvoice.org/donate

11/13/2025

Love seeing our Spellers Companion Guide books supporting teachers and learners!

11/12/2025

11/11/2025

This week seems like an especially good time for a re-post to clarify the difference between presuming competence and presuming knowledge.

There's this mistaken idea out there that people who talk about presuming competence believe that all nonspeaking kids are "locked in geniuses."

That's presuming KNOWLEDGE and it's not the same as presuming COMPETENCE.

We don't know what we don't know. A lot of times our students know so much more than we would suspect - because they've been listening to everyone talk about and around them for years - but there's a lot they don't know, particularly if they've been in a segregated classroom learning the same repetitive skills day after day for years on end.

So instead of assuming that they KNOW everything, we're assuming that they CAN LEARN anything.

That's not harmful. It's actually supportive and provides our students opportunities to shine, thrive, and access the world.

This presumption of competence is the foundation of our Accessible Academics course. This is a self-paced, ten module course that starts with the ideas of presuming competence and understanding motor/movement differences and builds to explain and model how to adapt age-appropriate academic tasks for students who communicate by making choices.

Struggling on how to teach phonics to a nonspeaking student? We cover that.

Not sure how to have nonspeaking students with motor difficulties use visual representations to model math equations? (We see you GenX and Millennials who have NO IDEA about this new Common Core math...) We'll show you how to do that.

Stuck on how to give nonspeaking students a meaningful voice in the creative writing process? Yup. We do that, too.

Additionally, we have an entire module devoted to language you can use to ask for specific accommodations, supplementary services, and meaningful IEP goals that align to real objectives but are accessible to complex communicators.

The best part? Your course access never expires!

If you believe in presuming competence and want to learn more about how to offer real educational opportunities to nonspeaking learners, we invite you to join us.
learn more or sign up at the link in our comments.

11/10/2025

We’re returning from Phoenix, AZ, inspired and energized after the most incredible weekend at the Communication for Education Skill Progression Workshop!

Lisa Mihalich Quinn and Julie Sando led this transformative experience together, with our Program Director Erin participating alongside seven passionate educators and practitioners from Arizona, Maryland, and Ohio. These dedicated professionals came together to build their skills to better support communication for their nonspeaking learners, following completion of Communication for Education’s Intro Course.

Every moment reaffirmed what we believe so deeply: when educators are in safe, supported spaces—free to ask questions, try new things, and stay open to possibility—real growth happens. 🌟

We’ll be sharing more photos and stories from this powerful weekend in the coming weeks—enjoy this sneak peek into our time together!

11/10/2025

There is no one size fits all solution for AAC. Now that iPads are so readily available and relatively cheap in comparison to dedicated devices, there’s a tendency to look to them to be the answer for all students.

Oftentimes students have unique access needs that take time for teams to figure out. It might require collaboration among OTs, PTs, SLPs, teachers, paraeducators and families.

You might need to figure out the best access methods, whether that’s by directly selecting something by pointing to it and touching it or using a switch to scan, using partner assisted scanning, eye gaze, or even more complicated set ups.

Learners also need time and instruction in how to move their bodies in order to access switches, accurately hit targets, or calibrate eye gaze.

When teams determine after a trial of a single device or program or a single access method that students have been unsuccessful in their ability to use AAC, it's problematic.

We need to constantly think creatively and customize our solutions for each learner we meet.

[id: a series of 3 images. The first, a graphic of a note with a paper clip. The text reads, "Reminder: There is no one-size-fits-all solution for AAC." Second: 3 photographs showing 3 AAC setups: a switch mounted at a wheelchair user's knee to control scanning on her device, multiple switches positioned on a wheelchair tray to control device / wheelchair functions, direct selecting on iPad touchscreen. Third: partner holding a keyboard to position it, partner assisted scanning (PAS), student with a wheelchair mounted eye-gaze device interacting with a peer's science fair presentation.]

11/10/2025

At REV, we value autonomy over independence. We also believe that no one is truly independent. We live interconnected lives that are made better for the ways we rely on one another. What matters is the autonomy we have in directing our own decisions.

What conversations have you had lately about shifting your perspectives from prioritizing independence to prioritizing autonomy?

[image id: a teal two-tone graphic of a speech bubble with some of the words "Autonomy isn't doing everything yourself. It's being able to direct the choices that impact your life" printed in white. The Reach Every Voice logo is printed in white in the bottom right corner]

11/06/2025

Who could say no to these faces?!

“Dear Friends,
Being part of the conversation means participating.
I’m hoping your important experiences can teach others about complete basic premise of independence above autonomy being flawed. Tell us your stories.”
- Ethan Tucker

We’re collaborating with Dr. Casey Woodfield from Rowan University to explore how autonomy is experienced and supported in the post–high school lives of nonspeaking and partially speaking adults with high support needs.

Our goal: to ensure this work is led by those whose experiences matter most—yours.

⭐ If you identify as nonspeaking or partially speaking and have support needs, we’d love your input! Please complete our survey to help shape our upcoming presentation at the TASH Conference this December.

👉 Complete the survey here: https://forms.gle/ZtvYC7iqwctqktBr5

If you work with any of our REV team members, they can help you complete it during sessions if you prefer—just let them know.

Your perspectives are vital in reshaping how autonomy is understood and supported beyond school. Thank you for sharing your voice and helping us center lived experience.