AACCENT Act
Key claim: The bill would have HHS award three regional grants to stand up resource centers that help people with severe speech and communication disabilities get tools, training, and technologies that replace or supplement spoken language.
Abstract
(HR9516 · 117th Congress) Augmentative and Alternative Communication Centers to Establish National Training Act or the AACCENT Act This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to award three grants in geographically diverse regions to establish a network of resource centers to improve access to tools, technologies, strategies, training, and other methods used to supplement or replace speech (i.e., augmentative and alternative communication) for individuals with significant expressive communication disabilities. These are communication disabilities (other than communication disabilities that are primarily visual or auditory in nature) that prevent or significantly limit an individual from understanding or being understood using spoken words, resulting in the need for or benefit from augmentative and alternative communication. Latest action (2022-12-13): Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Why this matters
If enacted, the bill would create a small federal grant footprint for augmentative and alternative communication access, a service area that currently depends on a patchwork of Medicaid, Medicare, school-based, and private insurance coverage. For people with conditions like ALS, cerebral palsy, autism, or stroke-related aphasia, regional centers could lower the practical barriers to obtaining and learning to use speech-generating devices and other AAC supports. As an introduced bill at committee referral, it has no immediate effect on coverage or services.