Communicate By Design

The name says it all. Communicate — because every student has something to say, including the ones using SGDs, eye-gaze systems, and core vocabulary boards to say it. Design — because access doesn't happen by accident. It happens through specially designed instruction, built intentionally for the students whose IEPs demand it. I'm a special education teacher and the mom of an AAC user. I've sat on both sides of the IEP table — as the educator writing the goals and as the parent fighting for them. I build resources for the teams who refuse to let "too complex" be the end of the conversation.

Every resource in this store starts with the lesson — not the disability, not the device, not the diagnosis. That means reading activities, curriculum access, and participation supports are designed so your AAC user is doing the same lesson as their peers, not a modified version that asks less of them. Specially designed instruction is the frame. Everything else — prompting strategies, communication supports, scaffold structures is built to serve it. Resources here work for students with dyslexia, ADHD, orthopedic impairments, and complex communication needs. They're evidence-based, IEP-aligned, and built to slot into what you're already doing — not replace it. AT without instruction is expensive furniture. SDI without access is just good intentions. These resources exist in the space between those two failures.

Two master's degrees, 20 years of building systems that work for people navigating the hardest chapters of their lives, and one kid who taught me more about communication than any credential ever could. MAT, Special Education — Western Governors University. MPA, Nonprofit Management & Development — Portland State University, Hatfield School of Government. The MPA built the infrastructure brain — grant writing, program design, advocacy systems, and organizational leadership for families living with chronic and complex illness. The MAT built the classroom brain — IEP development, specially designed instruction, and the research to back it all up. Together, they make someone who knows how systems are supposed to work and what to do when they don't. Certifications: WA Teaching Certification | Special Education Endorsement (West E) | Praxis — Special Education: Core Knowledge

I came to special education through advocacy — a decade leading a nonprofit for families navigating chronic illness, coaching students to find their voice on a debate stage, and raising a child whose access to the world depends on whether the adults around her do their homework. That experience shaped everything I build: resources made by someone who knows what it costs when a team shows up, and what it costs when they don't. I also serve on the OPTN/HRSA Pediatric Transplantation Committee — appointed to represent the intersection of medical complexity, family systems, and advocacy. The same intersection that shows up in every IEP I write and every resource I build.