ASHA Voices

SLPs Meg Lico and Kaitlin Hanley from NYU Langone Health share their story of working with Aaron James, the recipient of what's being called as the first ever full-eye and partial-face transplant. They describe how they worked with James to reach his goals, such as eating solid foods with his family.Central to the story is their collaboration and the interdepartmental communication that made success possible. The SLPs provide details about approaching this unique case, as well as their victories, memorable moments, and the emotions they had along the way.At the end of the conversation, hear from James and his wife Meagan.(This conversation was originally published in February 2024.)Learn More:Swallowing Function After Pioneering Partial Face and Whole Eye Transplant: Clinical InsightsFacing the Unknown: An SLP treated a patient before and after his facial transplant surgery.Changes in Articulatory Control Pre– and Post–Facial Transplant: A Case ReportThe Effects of Lip-Closure Exercise on Lip Strength and Function Following Full Facial Transplantation: A Case ReportTranscript

When people with cancer are treated with ototoxic drugs and interventions, they may experience hearing loss and tinnitus. The audiologist's role in addressing the needs of cancer patients can be critical to fostering awareness and preventing hearing loss. On this podcast, a panel of three audiologists discuss the services they deliver, the interprofessional collaboration at the heart of their care, and what counseling can offer at a time of uncertainty for a patient. Plus, one of our guests shares a personal story of cancer survival and hearing loss. Learn more:ASHA Voices: Audiologists Take on Ototoxicity  A Communication Lifeline for Hospitalized ChildrenASHA Voices: What to Know About Opioids and Hearing LossWhat's New in Ototoxicity Management?Transcript

As we approach graduation season, we're turning our attention to speech-language pathologists' role in helping students move from high school to the next phase of their lives.Twyla Perryman-Brownlow (University of West Georgia) shares ways SLPs can equip students with the skills and knowledge they need to navigate a meaningful transition to whatever comes next—such as employment, trade school, or college.Learn More:Postsecondary Transition PlanningCharting Paths: Supporting the Journey Beyond High SchoolASHA Voices: Embracing Your Students' Strengths—and Your OwnSchool-based SLPs: Here's a Virtual “Backpack” of School ResourcesThe Road Ahead: Postsecondary Transition Planning for Adolescents - ASHA StreamTranscript

SLP Derek Daniels says stigmatizing actions, like imitating stuttering, can lead people who stutter to remove themselves from opportunities and create a diminished quality of life. Daniels unpacks an example from his own life to give a glimpse into three different ways people can experience stigma. He shares how SLPs can address stigma in their work, and later in the episode, discusses his research into the intersectional ways people experience stigma.(This conversation was originally published in May 2024.)Learn More:Toward Stutter-Affirming TherapyRaising Stuttering Awareness and Reducing Stigma: A CollectionASHA Practice Portal: Stuttering, Cluttering, and FluencyASHA Special Interest Group 4: Fluency and Fluency DisordersASHA Condemns Public Mockery of StutteringTranscript

As a podcast host, husband, and occasional stand-up comedian, Jules Rodriquez uses his voice in many ways. But as a person with ALS, Rodriquez knew intonation was going to be a challenge until he tapped into the use of artificial intelligence.On this episode of the podcast, a panel of guests—including Rodriquez—discusses how AI and voice-cloning technology are changing the way AAC users communicate. Hear how the technology replicates his voice and accounts for control over prosody and inflection, allowing him to demonstrate his individuality and personality.Guests share how this technology affects Rodriquez's life and relationships. Plus, he shares what he wants speech-language pathologists to know about voice cloning.Learn More:•              ASHA Voices: What Message-Banking Offers People With ALS•              ASHA Voices: Why Some Autistic People Choose AAC and Oral Speech•              From My Perspective/Opinion: Beyond Words: How Code-Switching in AAC Reflects Social and Cultural NuanceSupport for this episode of ASHA Voices comes from Zanda.

AAC users and their families stand to benefit from preparing for natural disasters—like a hurricane, or the recent fires that spread through parts of Los Angeles.On the podcast, two SLPs discuss disaster preparedness, specifically what this means for people who use AAC devices and their care partners. They discuss how SLPs can help AAC users be ready to navigate the unexpected.And hear a personal story from the mother of an AAC user. She has a message to share about her experience preparing for a potential evacuation during the LA fires.Learn More:Resources for Members Affected by the LA Fires—And Other DisastersHurricane Preparedness: Tips for People Who Use Hearing Aids, Assistive Communication DevicesHelping People With Aphasia Prepare for an EmergencyUSSAAC: Disaster Relief

Life in the intensive care unit can be overwhelming. Patients may be intubated, disoriented, and scared. Families may be looking for answers from any provider who enters the room. For SLPs, the environment is noisy and ever-changing, and the stakes couldn't be higher.On the podcast, SLPs take us behind the scenes to share stories from the ICU. In a wide-ranging discussion, they tackle the significant role SLPs play in managing dysphagia and communication there.From the recent history that led SLPs to begin working in the ICU, to the SLP's biggest ally in that environment, to what can happen to patients when they're discharged, guests Marty Brodsky (Cleveland Clinic; Johns Hopkins) and Marta Kazandjian (Stony Brook Southampton Hospital; Stony Brook School of Health Professions) share their insights and expertise.Learn More:ASHA Health Care Summit 2025: Grand Rounds in the ICUASHA Voices: The Difference Patient Counseling MakesWheeling AAC Support for Aphasia Into the ICUASHA Practice Portal: Tracheostomy and Ventilator DependenceTranscriptSupport for this episode of ASHA Voices comes from Medbridge.

Patients receiving intensive care may experience emotions that affect their care and services. After a traumatic brain injury or tracheostomy, for example, patients may face many unknowns.SLP Jasmine Keaney realizes this, which helps her navigate where to start and how to reach a patient. Counseling can be as important as direct intervention, she says.Keaney is an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati. She began her career working in long-term acute care, where she developed skills around counseling, and learned the value of building strong rapport with the people she treats.On the podcast, she shares stories from her career, and practical ways SLPs can help patients through counseling.Learn More:•              When Aphasia Affects the Communication-Intensive Job of Parenting•              A Communication Lifeline for Hospitalized Children•              New AHA Statement Supports Palliative Care Throughout Post-Stroke Recovery•              ASHA Special Interest Group 20, CounselingTranscript

Five years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, SLP Rebecca Boersma of George Washington University Hospital's Long COVID Rehabilitation Clinic says patients with long COVID are often feeling “left in the dust” as they navigate cognitive concerns, including brain fog and fatigue.Boersma shares what she's learned about the condition, and what she's hoping to see next for the clinic and the people she serves there.Plus, Julie Dana, one of the first patients to visit Boersma in the clinic, tells her long-COVID story.Learn More:ASHA Evidence Maps: Summary of the Clinical Practice GuidelineASHA Voices: The Mysteries of Long COVIDElusive Words: Confronting the Post-Pandemic Skills Gap

Singers and other vocal performers can require complex care. As our guests explain, these “vocal athletes” may need a team of interdisciplinary providers on the sidelines.Speech-language pathologist and researcher Aaron Johnson (NYU Langone Health) and singing coach Tyley Ross (New York University Tisch School of the Arts) join the podcast to have a conversation on voice care.They discuss habilitation and rehabilitation of the voice. As Johnson puts it, “We oftentimes are not just bringing [clients] back to where they were … because what they were doing, sometimes, is what led them to being in our clinic in the first place.”They describe where their work overlaps and diverges, specific techniques they use, how patients respond to their work, and the insights this work has provided into their own voices.Learn More:Operatic SLP Treats Voice Disorders With SensitivityASHA Practice Portal: Voice DisordersCharacterizing the Roles of Professionals

Speech-language pathologist Jennifer Cripps-Ludlum says her entire life is a mask.As an adult, she discovered she is neurodivergent. The revelation arrived at the 2023 ASHA Convention, during a presentation on recognizing the signs of autism in young girls. After a subsequent panic attack, Cripps-Ludlum asked the presenter this question:“What do you do if you spend so much time masking that you don't know who you are anymore?”On this episode of the podcast, Cripps-Ludlum shares a personal history of masking. She shares the forms masking takes in her life, and the associated emotional and physical toll. Plus, she explains why she's found herself someplace she never expected to return to … high school.Learn More:ASHA Voices: What a CSD Professor Learned About Autistic Masking While Creating Neuro-Affirming SpacesA Neurodivergent View: Give Us Strategies … With ChoicesImagine True Inclusion: Defining the Social Model of DisabilityHow Do We ‘Authentically' Involve Autistic People in Research?Transcript

“Autistic masking” refers to concealing or changing aspects of oneself to fit in or generally avoid stigmatization.In her research and work with autistic students, SLP Siva priya Santhanam has seen the damaging effects stigma and masking can have on autistic students' mental health and well-being. An assistant professor at Bowling Green State University, Santhanam is a creator of neuro-affirming spaces for autistic students at universities.In this new conversation, she shares what she's learned about masking while creating these spaces. And she says supporting autistic ways of socializing and communication contributes to a campus community that is more affirming and inclusive of all students.Learn More:An Interactive and Neurodiversity-Affirming Approach to Communication Supports for Autistic Students Through VideogamingFrom My Perspective/Opinion: Realizing Their Authentic SelvesASHA Voices: A University Autism Support Program Navigates COVIDTranscript

In the years before Jim Henry became an audiologist, he developed hyperacusis, hearing loss, and tinnitus while performing in surf rock bands and working in carpentry.Following more than 35 years as a research audiologist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Henry is now the author of The Tinnitus Book and several others about managing the condition.In anticipation of Tinnitus Awareness Week, Henry provides a personal account of his experience with tinnitus and discusses approaches to treatment. He reflects on how his career in audiology affected the way he thinks about tinnitus, and he explains some of the condition's varied forms and effects.Learn More:ASHA Practice Portal: Tinnitus and HyperacusisASHA Voices: What Tinnitus and mTBI Can Mean for PatientsCustomizing Tinnitus Counseling for Varying Patient NeedsVideo Game Volume Linked to Hearing Loss, Tinnitus RiskTranscript

SLP Kim Murza visits the podcast with a message of strength.Murza often speaks on strengths-based service delivery. On the podcast, she shares the form that takes in the schools, and what it means for students and SLPs alike.Reflecting on her career, she shares the things she knows today that she wishes she knew early in her work in the schools.Later in the podcast, hear parent, consultant, and advocate Tena Green share what can be gained in the lives of students and society through implementation of a strengths-based perspective.Learn More·     School-based SLPs: Here's a Virtual “Backpack” of School Resources·     Flip the Script: Maximizing the Positives in Children's Lives·     ASHA Voices: Conversations on Milestones and Speech-Language DelaysTranscript

When dealing with a parent's concern about their child's communication, a pediatric audiologist may face multidisciplinary issues and need to make referrals. This episode's guests say pediatric audiologists may be the first step in a larger health care journey. They highlight the importance of delivering appropriate services to families at a critical time. Hear from two pediatric audiologists who work as instructors at LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities) programs. We're dedicating this episode to these multidisciplinary training programs, and their role in preparing pediatric audiologists.Plus, one LEND instructor in North Carolina shares a personal connection to her work.Learn More:Developing Future Pediatric Audiology Leaders: The LEND ExperienceGeorgia Puts Pediatric Hearing Care on Wheels to Address Service ShortagesPediatric Audiologists: Partners in Early Diagnosis of Autism

In this panel discussion, guests address how SLPs can empower themselves to effectively provide their services cross-linguistically. The guests share stories of their personal and professional connections to multilingualism, demonstrating the link between language, identity, and their work.(This conversation was originally published in March 2024.)Learn More:Practice Portal: Multilingual Service DeliveryPractice Portal: Multilingual Service ProvidersASHA Voices: Career Origin Stories – Multilingual Service ProvidersTranscript

SLP Christina Bradburn once faced the challenge of a caseload exceeding 100 students.Hear what she learned from that experience and how, today, she empowers herself by putting a spotlight on the needs and successes of her students.Bradburn also shares three, specific ways school-based SLPs can advocate for themselves to help meet their students' needs, including:·     Asking for access to the curriculum·     Gaining scheduling freedom·     Rethinking where service delivery takes placeBradburn also describes being nervous when implementing one of these methods for the first time, and what she learned from the experience.Learn More:SLP Focuses on Student Needs to Achieve Workload ReliefWorkload-Management Approaches and Resources for School-Based SLPsSLPs See 25% Increase in Average Number of Autistic Students Served Since 2022Transcript

SLP Elissa Larkin shares three stories showing how communication strategies--like using communication boards and acknowledging patient competence--help patients access health care.A research speech-language pathologist and a bioethicist at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, Larkin is the mind behind the Communication Champions interprofessional training program, where she leads courses aimed at improving communication access. On the podcast, she shares how you can be a communication access leader for your colleagues where you work.Learn More:ASHA's Communication Access InitiativeWhy Value-Based Care Can Open Lines of Communication AccessBuilding AAC Capacity to Foster Communication InclusionTranscript

In this second part of our conversation with SLP and health services researcher Jen Oshita, she expands on strategies people with communication disabilities can use to express themselves and more fully participate in their own health care.Hear why Oshita feels SLPs play a pivotal role in improving health care equity for these patients, and what organizations can do to increase communication access.Plus, hear from patients and care partners, including personal accounts from Hari Kannan, Vidya Thirumalai, and Lyn Piper.(This conversation was originally published in January 2024.)Transcript

SLP Jen Oshita provides strategies SLPs can share with people with communication disabilities to facilitate effective communication in health care. She discusses how communication access in health care interactions can contribute to health disparities, and she addresses barriers to care related to communication, such as rushed appointments with providers or the use of confusing medical jargon.Throughout this conversation, we'll hear from patients and care partners as they share their experiences with the health care system, including advocate Matthew LeFluer and health communications strategist Karen Hilyard, who shares strategies as well.(This conversation was originally published in January 2024.)Transcript

Hear the personal stories behind Medicaid advocacy, as SLPs share why and how they use their voices to increase reimbursement rates for their peers and secure resources for their clients and patients. From the telephone to the state house, they tell where they go to get their messages heard and how you can do the same.Also, ASHA's Caroline Bergner drops by the podcast to discuss a new ASHA resource designed to answer your questions about Medicaid and Medicare.Learn More:ASHA AdvocacyMedicare vs Medicaid: A Guide for Audiologists and Speech-Language PathologistsASHA Voices: Student Advocacy and a Win for People Who Stutter

When Jennifer La Scala was diagnosed with breast cancer, she came face to face with just how overwhelming, dense, and inaccessible patient education materials can be.A graduate student at the University of Central Florida, La Scala explains how her personal medical journey inspired her to study health literacy. Her work, and parallel work by University of Central Florida faculty, ultimately led to a collaboration with cochlear implant manufacturer Advanced Bionics.La Scala joins SLP Richard Zraick, of the University of Central Florida and audiologist Sarah Downing of Advanced Bionics to discuss health literacy and access to care, and how providers can improve communication with patients.Learn More:ASHA Practice Portal: Communication AccessAmerican Journal of Audiology: Readability of Cochlear Implant Brochures: A Potential Factor in Parent Decision MakingASHA Voices: How SLPs Can Use Communication Strategies to Improve Health Care AccessRead the Transcript

SLPs share how mindfulness tools help people focus on the present moment and ease their communication with others.Michael Boyle (Montclair State University) is an SLP who uses these tools personally and professionally. He discusses what these tools offer people who stutter and addresses misconceptions about mindfulness. Plus, in an interactive element, Boyle guides listeners through a mindfulness exercise.Later in the episode, SLP Jean Neils-Strunjas (University of South Carolina) joins me for a conversation on mindfulness and aging. And, she speaks on the benefits she's seen for people with aphasia and the research she's doing related to mindful walking.Learn More:ASHA Convention Presentation: Cultivating Mindfulness to Enhance Communication Outcomes for Individuals With Communication DisordersASHA Voices: Stuttering and Stigma With SLP Derek DanielsJournal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research: Age-Related Hearing Loss, Cognitive Decline, and Social Interaction: Testing a Framework

Audiologist Sarah Kingsbury, is asking big questions about what happens to our vestibular system in extreme environments, like when piloting an aircraft or even traveling through space.Kingsbury works as a senior research technologist and assistant professor of audiology at the Aerospace Medicine and Vestibular Research Laboratory at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. She's also pursuing a PhD in aerospace at the University of North Dakota.On the podcast, Kingsbury discusses opportunities for innovation and shares personal stories of inspiration. And she highlights the role of mentorship in her career and vestibular research.Kingsbury is one of 12 early-career professionals featured in the September/October ASHA Leader. Look for more profiles of early-career professionals online soon.Learn More:ASHA Voices: Career Origin Stories – Multilingual Service ProvidersDiagnosis and Management of Balance Vestibular DisorderASHA Practice Portal: Balance System DisordersTranscript

We catch up with researchers Jeff Holt and Karen Avraham about the state of gene therapy for addressing hearing loss and deafness. Both are part of the Research Symposium on Hearing at the 2024 ASHA Convention.Our guests explain what recent breakthroughs, including successful clinical trials, mean for the future of gene therapy. They comment on audiologists' potential role in treatment and assessment related to gene therapy.You can learn more about gene therapy and hearing loss at the Research Symposium on Hearing at the 2024 ASHA Convention in Seattle this December.Learn More:Research Symposium on HearingASHA Voices: Revisiting Conversations on Gene Therapy and Hearing LossFirst Deaf Gene Therapy Recipient in U.S. Gains Hearing

In its most severe forms, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) was once thought to be unavoidably terminal. But recent developments are allowing those with the disorder to live longer, healthier lives, and today's guest says this means a greater need for speech-language pathologists' services.SLP Katlyn McGrattan (University of Minnesota; Masonic Children's Hospital) says advances in treating SMA essentially created a new condition. She explains the role SLPs play in treating feeding and swallowing issues, dysarthria, and other such conditions seen in this emerging patient population.Later in the episode, hear from the mother of a son with SMA. She shares her family's experience.Learn More:ASHA Voices: Exploring Caregiver-Provider InteractionsDysphagia Phenotypes in Spinal Muscular Atrophy: The Past, Present, and Promise for the FutureASHA Evidence Map: Spinal Muscular AtrophyTranscript

How do you foster an environment that is conducive to retaining students with a diversity of experiences and backgrounds? In this second of two parts, a panel of faculty members from CSD programs discuss recruitment and retention of diverse and under-represented CSD professionals.Learn More:ASHAWire Special Collection: Culturally Responsive Teaching and LearningPerspectives Forum Highlights Holistic AdmissionsMinnesota CSD Program Formalizes Support for Students of ColorFrom My Perspective/Opinion: Advancing Justice, Equity in the Pipeline to the ProfessionsASHA Voices: HBCU Leaders Share Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Underrepresented Students in CSDTranscript

A panel of faculty members from CSD programs discuss recruitment and retention of diverse and under-represented CSD professionals. In this first of two parts, guests share personal experiences with and insights on holistic admissions.Learn More:Perspectives Forum Highlights Holistic AdmissionsASHAWire Special Collection: Culturally Responsive Teaching and LearningMinnesota CSD Program Formalizes Support for Students of ColorFrom My Perspective/Opinion: Advancing Justice, Equity in the Pipeline to the ProfessionsASHA Voices: HBCU Leaders Share Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Underrepresented Students in CSDTranscript: A Conversation on Holistic Admissions

Hear career-origin stories from three CSD professionals. From a wooden boat crossing the South China Sea, to a mother's unexpected suggestion, to a love of language … guests share the parts of their lives that inspired and shaped their careers.All of today's guests are multilingual, and throughout each story, they discuss what it's meant for them to incorporate multilingualism into their work.Learn More:ASHA Voices: A Personal and Professional Look at Multilingualism and CSDPractice Portal: Multilingual Service ProvidersPractice Portal: Multilingual Service DeliveryTranscript: Career Origin Stories - Multilingual Service Providers

Hear a conversation with SLP Tovah Feehan, who specializes in pediatric feeding disorders, and the hosts of the Caffeinated Caregivers podcast. Through their podcast and website, Alyssa Nutile and Erica Stearns create community around, advocate for, and highlight the identity of caregivers. Guests discuss provider and caregiver interactions. Hear stories from their lives and work.Learn More:Caffeinated Caregivers: What does it mean to be Disability-Informed? (And why does that matter?)ASHA Voices: The Critical But Unseen Social Determinants of HealthASHA Leader: Rethinking Pediatric Feeding ... LanguagePediatric Feeding Partners

What does it mean to have your voice heard as a part of the legislative process?We talk with a representative of the Kentucky Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and with a future SLP who spoke up this legislative session during a day for student advocacy at the Kentucky State Capitol.Guests discuss participation and highlight new legislation expanding insurance coverage for people who stutter—a bill that was championed by former University of Kentucky basketball star and past ASHA Voices guest Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.Learn More:ASHA Voices: Athlete and Advocate Michael Kidd-Gilchrist2024 Advocacy Wins: Keeping Pace: State Legislative and Regulatory Updates for Audiology and Speech-Language PathologyEpisode Transcript: ASHA Voices: Student Advocacy and a Win for People Who Stutter

An SLP encounters an increase in speech-language delays following the COVID-19 pandemic. What she finds next is a trend that is larger than she realized, and it may be something you've noticed as well.Later in the episode, go behind the scenes of ASHA's newly revised developmental milestones to hear how they were developed and why they were updated.Learn More:“Elusive Words: Confronting the Post-Pandemic Skills Gap” by SLP Liza StahnkeASHA's Developmental Milestones: Birth to 5 YearsEpisode transcript: ASHA Voices: Conversations on Milestones and Speech-Language Delays

SLP Derek Daniels says stigmatizing actions, like imitating stuttering, can lead people who stutter to remove themselves from opportunities and create a diminished quality of life. Daniels unpacks an example from his own life to give a glimpse into three different ways people can experience stigma. He shares how SLPs can address stigma in their work, and later in the episode, discusses his research into the intersectional ways people experience stigma.

Hear stories from home health SLPs working in three different regions across the country. As more patients choose to receive care at home, SLPs working in the city of Baltimore, the suburbs of Atlanta, and in a rural part of the Midwest share how the places they work influence the ways they provide services and care.Central to the conversation are social determinants of health, the sometimes unseen environmental and social factors that can influence our health. You'll hear these factors in the stories of each of today's guests.

In this panel discussion, guests address how SLPs can empower themselves to effectively provide their services cross-linguistically. The guests share stories of their personal and professional connections to multilingualism, demonstrating the link between language, identity, and their work.

SLP Jerry Hoepner discusses the ways SLPs can help patients address barriers to care and connection following a traumatic brain injury.A professor at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, Hoepner studies the experiences of people with TBIs and their interactions with health care providers. As a part of his research, he's gathered and published observations from people who have experienced brain injuries. He shares what he's learned from that research, highlighting the chronic phase of care and the powerful role of conversation groups for those with TBIs.Transcript

SLPs Meg Lico and Kaitlin Hanley from NYU Langone Health share their story of working with Aaron James, the recipient of what's being billed as the first ever full-eye and partial-face transplant. They describe how they worked with James to reach his goals, such as eating solid foods with his family.Central to the story is their collaboration and the interdepartmental communication that made success possible. The SLPs provide details about approaching this unique case, as well as their victories, memorable moments, and the emotions they had along the way.At the end of the conversation, hear from James and his wife Meagan.Transcript

We're delving into new research addressing the where and the who of hearing loss in the U.S.Principal investigator David Rein, of NORC at the University of Chicago, and audiologist Nick Reed, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, discuss the Sound Check project. This research initiative includes new estimates of bilateral hearing loss and an interactive map that presents the data by state, county, and more.Hear the researchers observe trends and share takeaways from this comprehensive look at hearing loss in the U.S.Transcript

An audiologist and SLP discuss working together to assist patients with mild TBI and tinnitus.At the center of their collaboration is addressing the cognitive load in patients who have both tinnitus and the injury. Find out why and how the duo decided to join together to help these patients, and what they do differently now.Transcript

In this second part of our conversation with SLP and health services researcher Jen Oshita, she expands on strategies people with communication disabilities can use to express themselves and more fully participate in their own health care.Hear why Oshita feels SLPs play a pivotal role in improving health care equity for these patients, and what organizations can do to increase communication access.Plus, hear from patients and care partners, including personal accounts from Hari Kannan, Vidya Thirumalai, and Lyn Piper.Transcript

SLP and health services researcher Jen Oshita provides strategies SLPs can share with people with communication disabilities to facilitate effective communication in health care. She discusses how communication access in health care interactions can contribute to health disparities, and she addresses barriers to care related to communication, such as rushed appointments with providers or the use of confusing medical jargon.Throughout this conversation, we'll hear from patients and care partners as they share their experiences with the health care system, including advocate Matthew LeFluer and health communications strategist Karen Hilyard, who shares strategies as well.Transcript

John Hendrickson is a writer and senior editor at The Atlantic where, four years ago, he began to write about stuttering, penning an article about now-President Joe Biden's relationship with speech disfluency. Hendrickson's memoir “Life on Delay” is a personal expansion, exploring the author's own life experiences with stuttering. On the podcast, he discusses his book, publicly disclosing he is a person who stutters, and addresses media representations of speech disfluency. This is ASHA Voices' third conversation featuring authors discussing their lives as people who stutter. All conversations feature special guest co-host and SLP Chaya Goldstein-Schuff of the Sisskin Stuttering Center and the StutterTalk podcast.

ASHA Voices is ringing in the new year with a preview of 2024 and some highlights from 2023.

You may have seen our first guests present on cultural awareness, bias, and microaggressions in the supervisory relationship at the 2023 ASHA Convention.SLPs Kyomi Gregory-Martin and Nancy Gauvin join the podcast for a conversation on creating inclusive workplace cultures and what to do if you unintentionally commit a microaggression.Later in the episode, hear a personal story from Iván Campos, a bilingual SLP working in California. He also shares how he feels microaggressions have changed since 2020.

Audiologist and public health researcher Lauren Dillard takes us on a journey through the ASHA Voices archive to highlight the many places audiology and public health overlap. From mobile clinics, to a history lesson, to an Arizona border town, hear excerpts from past episodes of the podcast curated by affiliates of ASHA Special Interest Group 8, Public Health Audiology.

SLP Joe Duffy, who has spent decades with the Mayo Clinic treating motor speech disorders, shares some of the stories that stick with him—from surprising neurological conditions to functional speech disorders. And, he dissects what we can learn from these memorable patients and the way they spoke.

If clinicians and families aren't speaking the same language when treating pediatric swallowing disorders, things can get confusing — and dangerous — says today's guest on the podcast.SLP Laura Brooks discusses her work with the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative, or IDDSI. The nonprofit has been developing and implementing resources that standardize measurements for thickened liquids and modified foods.Brooks, who treats children with swallowing disorders, discusses cultural considerations in her work with care partners and family members. And she shares what she's learning from clinicians outside the U.S. through her work with the international nonprofit.This conversation was originally published in February 2023.

What some SLPs have considered a “hidden disorder” is receiving attention. Earlier this year, the Department of Education clarified that Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) could be recognized under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA.To reflect and expand on this update, DLD advocates Kelly Farquharson, Tiffany Hogan, and Karla McGregor join the podcast to detail the work they are doing to bring attention to the neurodevelopmental condition. They discuss what this recent IDEA development means for students with DLD and the SLPs who work with them. It's part of a conversation covering advocacy, masking, and the ways SLPS can address DLD while working with families and teachers.

What have we learned from the first year of OTC hearing aids' availability?A panel of audiologists with distinct perspectives on the devices—informed by their varying professional experiences—discuss uptake, patient satisfaction, and common misconceptions. Plus, hear what our guests hope year two and beyond might hold for these devices.

In this episode, we look at what artificial intelligence (AI) might mean for people with swallowing disorders, as part of our continuing series of conversations about AI's influence on audiology and speech-language pathology.Vanderbilt University's Cara Donohue shares her experience with this burgeoning technology before discussing implications and practical applications. Hear why she considers the roles of engineers and interprofessional collaboration to be essential.

From hearing aids to cochlear implants, from tinnitus to speech-in-noise, AI is everywhere. On this episode, professor Fan-Gang Zeng (UC Irvine) discusses where audiologists may see AI show up next, and the promise this technology holds for assessment and treatment. Zeng's research focuses on the ways hearing and the brain are linked, like through tinnitus or with cochlear implants. At the 2023 Research Symposium on Hearing at the upcoming ASHA Convention, he will present on the implications of AI for audiological research and care.