<p>Keywords</p><p>augmentative communication, disability, biography, methodology</p><p>Abstract</p><p>Feminist social research and disability studies converge in arguing for a research methodology undertaken on behalf of and to empower research participants. Our research, an ongoing life history project with Jon Feucht, has been undertaken in this tradition. Throughout much of his life, Jon struggled with a severe speech disability due to cerebral palsy that significantly impaired his ability to communicate verbally with others. After acquiring a sophisticated augmentative communication device, Jon's life changed for the better. In this paper we describe the nature of augmentative communication, share some of Jon's thoughts about augmentative communication and people with disabilities, and explore some of the challenges and opportunities facing researchers collaborating on research projects with individuals who use augmentative communication to speak.</p>

This article recounts the authors’ experiences at the Authentic Voices of America summer camp for severely disabled youths who are learning to become more proficient at using computerized communication devices to speak. The five-day camp was founded by Jon Feucht, who also uses a device and continues to serve as its director. In the summer of 2011, Feucht invited sociologist Ron Berger to attend the camp as part of a collaborative research project about Feucht’s life story. This article is written in Berger’s voice, but includes excerpts from Feucht’s “Straight Talks” that he gave at the camp as well as his views about living with a severe disability. By way of conclusion, insights from critical disability studies and crip theory are also considered.

This essay describes the first author's personal and professional journey to and through the Eighth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. The story is told in Ron Berger's voice but is written in the context of his friendship and professional collaboration with Jon Feucht, who uses a computerized augmentative communication device to speak. From the very beginning, the authors anticipated that their experiences at the Congress would contain possibilities for collecting ethnographic data and writing an article that would illuminate the lived experience of disability and augmentative communication. After arriving at the Congress, additional possibilities for a multilayered essay unfolded as well.