AAC helps people to understand each other better. It builds bridges between people and creates connections between people with and without disabilities. This makes a community possible in which there can be mutual understanding, respect and solidarity. Together with you, we would like to bring this community to life at the AAC Congress. The AAC Congress is also an opportunity to provide new impulses for togetherness in our everyday lives and for inclusion in society. Communication boards in playgrounds are one example of how AAC can become better known to the public and achieve greater understanding for AAC users.

AAC enables participation in different areas of life. Family, kindergarten, school, work, home and leisure all place very different demands on communication and aids. However, AAC cannot be limited to individual areas of life, but should also link areas of life, e.g. support facilities, therapy and familiy. The congress offers ideas for the design of AAC that take into account the various requirements as well as the individual life situation of the AAC users.

Successful assisted communication always means combining different means and forms of communication. The AAC Congress and, in particular, the accompanying exhibition are a good opportunity to find out about the latest developments in communication aids. Non-technical and basic approaches to communication should not be forgotten. On the one hand, they are an important supplement to electronic aids. On the other hand, simple and non-electronic aids are important for the communication of people with complex disabilities. We would also like to discuss ideas for designing multimodal communication for different user groups using practical examples.

In recent years, there has always been a focus on bringing AAC to people from different professional groups, e.g. doctors. With the AAC Congress 2025, we want to ask what we can learn from other disciplines: How can new findings, e.g. from neurolinguistics, speech therapy, or developmental psychology or computer science (AI), enrich AAC?

There are people all over the world who rely on AAC. There are now ACC experts in numerous countries. There is also an increasingly diverse range of research on AAC in different countries. The exchange of experiences, developments and research in other countries can be an enrichment for AAC in German-speaking countries. At the AAC Congress, we would like to open our eyes to other countries and promote international networking – for the benefit of the participation of AAC users worldwide!

People with German as a second language also benefit from AAC. However, many communication aids are not yet used bilingually or multilingually. The understanding of terms and words that are represented with graphic symbols, for example, also depends on cultural socialization. In an increasingly multicultural society, it is therefore necessary to ask how AAC can contribute to understanding between cultures and how AAC can be designed in a culturally sensitive way.

For many years now, it has been a good tradition for people who use AAC themselves, as well as their relatives, to have their say at the congress. As experts in their own behalf, they report on their everyday lives or present projects for greater understanding in their personal environment. Their contributions will significantly enrich the congress program.