Najma Al Zidjaly is Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English (College of Arts & Social Sciences) at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. She is the editor of Building Bridges: Integrating Language, Linguistics, Literature and Translation in Pedagogy and Research (2009). Her other publications include articles in Language in Society, Visual Communication and Communication & Medicine; and chapters in Handbook of Research on Discourse Behavior and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction (2010) and Multimodal Discourse in Practice (2011). Najma's primary research interests are disability, human agency, geosemiotics, multimodality, new media technology and Arab (Omani) identity.

Margareta Andersson graduated in speech language pathology at the University of Gothenburg in 2009 and is currently working with adults with communication disorders at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Christine Ashby , Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Teaching and Leadership Department of the School of Education at Syracuse University and the Research Director of the Institute on Communication and Inclusion. Her teaching and research focuses on inclusive education broadly, with specific emphasis on supports for students with labels of autism and other developmental disabilities, communication, disability studies and school reform.

Andrew Bennett is a Ph.D. student in Cultural Foundations of Education with an emphasis in disability studies at Syracuse University. His research interests focus on speech disability and adolescence, speech disability in general, and universal design for learning.

Ronald J. Berger is Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has published over a dozen books, including Hoop Dreams on Wheels: Disability and the Competitive Wheelchair Athlete, Wheelchair Warrior: Gangs, Disability, and Basketball (with Melvin Juette), and Storytelling Sociology: Narrative as Social Inquiry (with Richard Quinney).

Allison Boggis is a Senior Lecturer at the University Campus Suffolk and a Course Leader for the Foundation Degree in Children's Care, Learning and Development. Allison has experience of working with disabled children and as a mother of a disabled child, her PHD research with inarticulate children and young people is fuelled by her professional and personal interests.

Malin Broberg is a PhD and a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in the life situation of children with disabilities and their families. She is an associate professor at the department of psychology at the University of Gothenburg.

Jeremy L. Brunson is a nationally certified sign language interpreter who teaches sociology and sign language interpreting at Gallaudet University. His research interests are the sociology of work and the professions, sociology of interpreting, and qualitative research methodologies.

Diane Nelson Bryen has been professor of Special Education since 1973 and Executive Director of Temple's Institute on Disabilities, Pennsylvania's University Center for Excellence from 1992 to her retirement in 2008, She has been a leader, mentor, advocate, teacher, and researcher. Her contributions to improving the quality of life and equal access for people with disabilities have been widely recognized (i.e., the first annual Temple University Great Teacher's Award; the 1996 Humanitarian Award from United Cerebral Palsy of Pennsylvania; the ACES Free Speech Now Award in 1992; two leadership awards from the Administration on Developmental Disabilities; the Temple University Stauffer Award for distinguished service in 2006; the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of University Centers on Disability in 2007; the 2008 Gallery of Success at Temple University, Fulbright Specialist to Kolkatta India and Sakhnin, Israel, the Neville Cohen Award in South Africa). Dr. Bryen has done work in Israel, South Africa, India, Australia, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam with 3 main foci — AAC, criminal justice, and inclusive education.

Karina Chupina is a freelance professional international trainer, consultant and writer from St. Petersburg, Russia. Currently Karina is a PhD student at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. She is a president of IFHOHYP (http://www.ifhohyp.org) and a Global Advisor to the Disability Rights Fund. Karina is a member of Trainers' Pool of the Council of Europe Directorate of Youth and Sport where her main training areas are Human Rights Education, Inclusion, Diversity & Anti-Discrimination, Disability and Disablism, Training of Trainers, Media and Youth Participation. She holds an MA in International Journalism (St.Petersburg State University), Exec. MA in International and European Relations & Management (University of Amsterdam), MA in Political Science and Sociology (European University at St.Petersburg). Her research interests are social inclusion, disability, anti-discrimination, equal opportunities, non-formal learning.

Marjorie DeVault is Professor of Sociology at in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Her research has focused on gender and work, including unpaid household and family work, and she has written extensively on qualitative and feminist research methodologies. Recently, she has begun to work in Deaf and Disability Studies, and she currently works collaboratively with Rebecca Garden and Michael Schwartz in a Campaign for Deaf Access, designed to bring qualitative research to bear on issues of communication between Deaf and medical communities.

Ulrika Ferm is a speech language pathologist since 1989. She is specialised in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and did her PhD in linguistics in 2006, focusing interaction between caregivers and children with severe speech and physical impairments in different social activities at home. She currently works at the DART Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Assistive Technology in the Regional Rehabilitation Centre, Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Jon Feucht earned his Masters of Special Education Degree at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and is founding director of Authentic Voices of America, a summer camp for adolescents and young adults learning to use augmentative communication devices. His previous publications include Straight Talks from My Desk, a book of his speeches, and The Tan Car, a book of his poems.

Jennifer Flad is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. She earned her Ph.D. from Syracuse University and focuses on qualitative methodologies, health and illness experiences, and disability studies.

Rebecca Garden , PhD, is Associate Professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University. She has published on health, narrative, and disability and Deaf studies in journals ranging from New Literary History to the Journal of General Internal Medicine. She teaches socio-cultural and ethical issues in health care to medical and nursing as well as liberal arts students and is part of the Campaign for Deaf Access: Expanding Communication in Health Care research project: http://disabilitystudies.syr.edu/what/deafaccess.aspx.

DMan Johnson is 31 years old and has been using facilitated communication for two years. He has presented at the Society for Disability Studies annual conference and the Autism National Committee annual conference.

Patrick Kermit is senior researcher at NTNU Social Research AS and former associate professor at the education for Sign Language interpreters at the South Trøndelag University College. Both institutions are located in Trondheim, Norway. Kermit's research centers around ethical and legal questions related to Deafness. In his PhD thesis he analyzes and discusses ethical aspects of paediatric cochlear implantation.

Odd Morten Mjøen is senior adviser at Møller-Trøndelag Resource Centre for the deaf and hard-of hearing. Mjøen is a sign language interpreter and has been a teacher at the education for Sign Language interpreters at the South Trøndelag University College. Mjøen has a master of science in disability and society.

Torunn Liljegren is a recently graduated speech and language pathologist. She is currently working on a master degree in SLP focusing on bilingual children.

Mitchell E. Loeb is a Health Scientist in the Office of Analysis and Epidemiology at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). His research experience includes work in Canada, Norway and several developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and south-east Asia. Mitchell is involved with the Washington Group on Disability Statistics, whose Secretariat is located at NCHS, and the analysis of disability data from the US and internationally.

Katherine Mahosky earned a master's degree in Clinical Speech Pathology in 1982. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Curriculum and Instruction doctoral program at Northern Arizona University. Katherine's specialty areas include evaluation and intervention of infants and toddlers with communication delays and persons with multiple challenges to learning. She also has experience working with adolescents and adults with language/learning disorders including the impact of those disorders on reading and writing development.

D. Mont is, among other things, the father of Alex, who happens to be autistic. Dan is an actor and writer and has both published and presented his experiences raising Alex previously. He is also an economist concerned with issues of disability and welfare. Currently, Dan is a Leonard Cheshire Disability Fellow at the Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Center, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK.

Lisbeth Nilsson, PhD and specialist in occupational therapy is the author of several internationally published articles and the facilitator of numerous academic work shops in her field of expertise. She has a special research interest in activity, interaction and learning processes, in particular those of people with cognitive disabilities.

Terje Olsen is a PhD in sociology and Head of Research at Nordland Research Institute in Bodø, Norway. He has worked with research on welfare state issues for 15 years, and focuses in particular on the situation for vulnerable groups. His PhD thesis focuses on the employment situation for people with intellectual disabilities.

Bob Segalman , CEO of Speech Communications Assistance by Telephone, received a Ph.D. in Social Welfare/Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, 1972. He is a State of California retiree (2004). He has an Honorary Doctorate for creating the national telephone assistance service for AAC users and others with speech disabilities.

Michael Schwartz , an associate professor of law and director of Syracuse University's Disability Rights Clinic, is a long time advocate of disability rights. An Assistant Attorney General in the New York State Department of Law in the mid-1990s, Schwartz successfully litigated New York's first ADA Title III case, establishing the power of a State Attorney General to bring an action under the ADA. He recently obtained his Ph.D. in Education from Syracuse University and is working with Professors Marjorie DeVault of Syracuse University and Rebecca Garden of Upstate Medical University to improve communication between the Deaf and medical communities.

Tom Shakespeare is well known for his contributions to disability studies, less well known as a performer, writer and artist within the British disability arts community. After many years in academia, he was a Fellow with the National Endownment of Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) from 2005-2008 . He now works at the World Health Organization in Geneva, but still finds time to dance and write.

Barbara Stock is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Gallaudet University. Her research and teaching interests include moral philosophy, early modern philosophy, and philosophical issues explored in science fiction.

Anna Stubblefield currently provides communication support to four FC users. She is the chair of the Philosophy Department at Rutgers University-Newark and specializes in disability studies and ethics.

Gunilla Thunberg is a speech language pathologist and PhD in Linguistics, specialised in AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) since 1988. Being a mother to a child with autism her primary research interests are communication intervention for children with autism and family issues. She is the initiator and leader of the AKKtiv-project - AAC and early intervention. She works at the DART Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Assistive Technology in the Regional Rehabilitation Centre, Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Matthew Wangeman has been a disability advocate for over 20 years at the local, state and national levels. He has a B.S. in Business Administration and a Master's in City Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. Matthew currently works at the Institute for Human Development as a researcher and an instructor in the Disability Studies Minor at Northern Arizona University.

Mary Wickenden is British and originally qualified as a speech and language therapist. However she subsequently trained as a medical anthropologist. She now teaches and carries out research in disability cross-culturally at University College London. Her particular interests are children and families' experiences and disability issues in low income countries.