“Voices in Action – Innovation, Inclusion, and Advocacy in AAC”

October XX to XX, 2025

Call for Papers

The conference theme for the ISAAC 2025 is “Voices in Action – Innovation, Inclusion, and Advocacy in AAC”. The conference focuses on advancing the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) by exploring cutting-edge research, technology advancements, and inclusive practices.

The event brings together persons who use AAC (PWUAAC) and their families, researchers, practitioners, engineers, vendors, and advocates to discuss communication access, self-determination, mental health, education, and global perspectives, fostering collaboration and driving meaningful change in the field of AAC.

Through lectures, interactive sessions, panel discussions, and virtual demonstrations, participants will gain insights into cutting-edge research, technological innovations, and real-world applications that empower persons who use AAC (PWUAAC) worldwide.

Abstract Submissions Guidelines

The online portal opens on March 31, 2025 at 12:00 GMT. The portal closes to NEW submissions on May 30, 2025 at 12:00 GMT

All submissions must be made through the online system Oxford Abstracts | The Academic Conference Platform

Each submission requires you to:

1. Complete an online form – see individual requirements for each submission type on the following pages.
2. Upload the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) declaration form(s) as a single PDF file. This enables conference participants to receive continuing education credits from ASHA.

Peer Review and Selection

Proposals will be selected based on relevance, scientific quality, content area, importance, and program balance. The Program Committee will make final decisions regarding:

• Allocations to conference Content Area(s).
• Final Format (e.g. ePoster/short session) and duration of each session.

Please note that you may be offered an alternative format to your original selection.

Please do not submit the following:

• Abstracts that have already been published elsewhere.
• Submissions that are solely for company marketing purposes.
• Submissions containing sensitive material, such as a person’s name, voice, picture, or personal details, without their written permission.

Copyright

ISAAC will own the copyright on all proposals accepted for the conference.

Ethical Procedures

All presenters are expected to have followed ethical procedures in the collection and analysis of clinical and research data. This includes measures to protect the privacy and confidentiality of people mentioned in their presentations. Images and likenesses, including audio recordings and photographs or video data, must only be used with the permission of the person depicted. Real names or initials must only be used with the participant’s permission; otherwise pseudonyms stated as not being the person’s real name must be used. Where a person cannot provide informed consent themselves, proxy consent (e.g., from a parent or appointed guardian) must be obtained. For those requiring more information about consent and assent processes, the following links to Ethical Research Involving Children (ERIC[1]) and Ethical Guidance for Research with People with Disability (National Disability Authority[2]) may be of use.

It is the author’s responsibility to make consent or other ethical considerations clear within their submission. Abstracts suspected of containing identifying information will be returned to the author(s) as non-reviewable.

[1] http://childethics.com/

[2] http://nda.ie/Policy-and-research/Research/Research-Ethics/

Notification of Acceptance

1. Applicants will be notified about the acceptance/rejection of their submission by June 30^th, 2025. Some authors may be offered a chance to resubmit their proposal in an alternative format.
2. Presenters will be notified of the time, date, and final format of their presentation by September 15^th, 2025 at the latest.
3. A minimum of one author per accepted presentation must be registered no later than August 1^st, 2025, otherwise ISAAC reserves the right to remove that presentation from the ISAAC 2025 Virtual Conference “Voices in Action – Innovation, Inclusion, and Advocacy in AAC”. Authors accepted to the program are expected to register and be available to present at their allocated time in the program. Changes to allocated times will not be considered.

Conference Theme and Content Areas for ISAAC Virtual Event

Conference Content Areas/Strands

Types of presentations

For this virtual conference, we are offering four different submission formats for authors to choose from:

Guidelines for presentations

The following guidelines have been provided to help you decide which format will be most appropriate for your submission to ISAAC 2025 Virtual Conference, and how the reviewers will judge each category. These sections include information on preparing your abstracts and using the online form. We have also provided some guidance on how to prepare your submission for the conference.

Short presentations

Short Sessions are 20 minutes in length followed by 10 additional minutes allocated for a question and answer period. The purpose is to share scientific information in the form of recent research findings or ongoing research, or highlight educational, clinical, technical, and professional innovations in an efficient manner.

Interactive seminars

Interactive Seminars provide more in-depth coverage of topics and create opportunities for discussion and interactive learning. Most of the Interactive Seminars will be 60 minutes in length. This is also the format that may be chosen for sessions involving practical demonstrations of AAC tools, techniques, or strategies. An interactive session may also include breakout rooms where audience can discuss topics and be actively participating.

Research panel discussions

The purpose the Research panel discussions is to create a platform for academic discussion and debate around conceptual areas of interest in AAC research or practice. Panels should lead to deeper understandings and give impetus for new questions, ideas and directions in AAC research. The Discussion Panels are not aimed only at emerging or established researchers, but rather at anyone who is interested in a more in-depth engagement and theoretical and practical discussion around a particular AAC research topic.

Discussion Panels will offer a forum to discuss in depth the state of the science and future needs of a specific topic. The panel will include a discussion moderator and 3-4 speakers. The moderator will be in charge of recruiting the speakers and organizing the discussion. Each speaker will describe the current and most pressing research questions in his or her area of work, as well as needs/questions for future research.

A research panel discussion should encourage audience participation through Q&A or polls.

The moderator will be in charge of keeping time, engaging the audience, and closing the discussion panel with a brief 5–10 min summary.

ePoster presentations

ePosters are a visual representation of research findings, ideas, or personal experiences. They typically incorporate graphics and text. Presenters will be allocated a short time slot to discuss their poster with delegates.

Formal requirements pertaining to all submissions

In all submissions, you will be required to submit the following information:

Type of Presentation

Indicate preferred type of presentation: short presentation, interactive seminar, research panel discussion, or ePoster presentation.

Presentation Title

The topic of your session should be clear from the title (max 15 words).

Author Details

You will be asked to provide the name, affiliation, contact details, and a short biography (max 150 words) for each author. You must also indicate which author(s) will be presenting the submission at the conference.

Target Audience

Authors must select one of the following options:

• Introductory / General Knowledge level presentations target early practitioners / researchers / families, OR cover a broad scope for a wide audience.
• Intermediate / Advanced knowledge level presentations target practitioners / researchers / families with significant background in AAC, OR a specialized topic with a narrower scope.

Content Area(s)

Following the theme of this Voices in Action – Innovation, Inclusion, and Advocacy in AAC, conference, authors will be able to link their short session submission to one or more  content area (see these listed on page 5). The reviewing committee reserves the right to assign the abstract to a different session format or content area from the one identified in submission.

Declaration of Interest Statement

Authors must select one of the following statements:

• “The authors disclose they have no financial or other interest in objects or entities mentioned in this paper.”

OR

• “The authors disclose they have the following financial or other interests in objects or entities mentioned in this paper…” (Please provide specific details, e.g., research funding sources, commercial interests in products or interventions, etc.)

This statement must acknowledge the interests of all authors on the paper.

Abstract Format

Your abstract must be entered as plain text into the submission form, and should be a maximum of 500 words, including up to six references. The abstract should provide a detailed description of the session contents for the conference proceedings and for review purposes.

Recent research findings submission abstracts must include the aim, method, results, and conclusion.

Educational, clinical, technical, professional innovations submission abstracts must include the content and focus of the presentation.

The abstract should contain no identifying details of the authors, to enable a blind review of the submission.

Learning Outcomes

The abstract must list three learning outcomes.

Accessible Summary

As well as an abstract, authors must include an easy-to-read summary of their papers. In the spirit of making research findings more accessible, authors are required to:

• Summarise the content of their paper using bullet points (4 or 5 at most),
• Express their ideas in this summary using straightforward language, and
• State simply why the research is important, and should matter to persons who use AAC

Selection Criteria

All submissions will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

• Strength of theoretical, scientific, or professional rationale.
• Quality and rigor of content, as appropriate for proposal type.
• Relevance and interest to ISAAC audience.
• Overall clarity of proposal.
• Suitability for proposed session format.
• Appropriateness of learning outcomes.
• Engagement of ISAAC audience.

ASHA Disclosure Form(s)

These forms allow ASHA members to gain Continuing Education Unit (CEU) points for attending your presentation. An ASHA form must be completed for each proposal submission and uploaded as a PDF. If they are not included, the proposal will be returned to the author(s) as non-reviewable.

When posted, the ASHA forms can be accessed here, and downloaded / saved to your local computer for completion. ISAAC  International recommends using the full version of Adobe Acrobat to electronically sign your PDF abstract upload. Alternatively, printed ASHA forms can also be scanned or photographed and converted to PDF.