Mental health as an area of concern and focusing schools is being recognized around the world.There is a growing understanding that emotionally healthy students are more likely to be successfulin school and in life. But what of students who require AAC?This session will raise this issue through stories shared by augmented speakers and connect this tothe newly revised Communication Bill of Rights (Brady, et al., 2016).

We will explore the development and use of AAC symbols across diverse languages and cultures.
The experience of developing the Arabic Tawasol open symbol set led directly to the creation of
Global Symbols with participatory approaches to localization and contextualization of symbols to
reflect community needs. All symbols, tools and training resources are published openly, resulting
in collaboration with international agencies to increase AAC usage globally.

Growing up in the 1980s was challenging as child with cerebral palsy. I was smart, but I couldn’t talk, so nobody heard me. This is a story about how I learned how to communicate, first with symbols then with a speech device and how it changed my life.