Amy Roman is the Speech Language Pathologist and Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) Specialist at the Forbes Norris ALS Research Center in San Francisco. During her ten years at the center, Amy has assisted clients with a wide variety of solutions for communication, swallowing and computer access issues.

Amy also runs an over 1,000 piece, ALS Association communication and computer access equipment lending library through which she provides demonstrations, evaluations, trials, loans and training.

In addition she operates a volunteer program for training and utilizing speech pathology students in order to provide free supplementary services to patients who use AAC.

Amy created AlphaCore©, a page set available on the DynaVox V and Vmax, specifically to meet the communication and telecommunication needs of patients with ALS. AlphaCore utilizes a wide variety of strategies to allow individuals to express themselves with greater ease, speed and independence.

Her publications include a book chapter entitled “Speech, Communication and Computer Access” in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis published by the American Academy of Neurology & Demos Publishing (2005), an article entitled “Cognitive and Behavioral Impairments in People with ALS and Their Implications for Communication & AAC Use” in Perspectives on AAC-ASHA Div 12 Newsletter, December 2006 (Co-Authored with Neurophysiologist Susan Woolley). She was also a contributing author to MDA/ALS Caregiver’s Guide, MDA ALS Division Publishing, 2008 and “Communication and ALS”, a publication by the National ALS Association (2004).

Amy provides ongoing workshops around the United States for speech pathologists entitled “AAC & ALS” and has lectured at a variety of conference and universities on topics related to technology for persons with disabilities.

Currently Amy is working on research examining low-tech communication options for people with only eye movement.