
Approximately 5 million Americans and 97 million people worldwide may benefit from AAC (Beukelman & Light, 2020). But here's what that number doesn't capture: the millions more with cerebral palsy, autism, stroke, ALS, apraxia, and countless other conditions who can speak sometimes—but not always, not clearly, or not in ways that give them true autonomy. The real number? We don't actually know. And that's part of the problem.