AAC Community in Ukraine is a national nonprofit community and professional network uniting AAC users, families, educators, therapists, and advocates to advance communication access in Ukraine. We promote disability inclusion through the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in all their diversity, consistent with United Nations principles and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Community has translated international inclusion standards into practical Ukrainian solutions, helping ensure that communication access is recognized as a fundamental human right rather than a specialized service.
Beyond advocacy, the organization has created long-term measurable impact by developing methodological recommendations for the state educational system, delivering free nationwide training, expanding access to AAC tools in Ukrainian, and strengthening the capacity of schools, therapists, and families to support individuals with complex communication needs. These efforts have improved educational participation, independence, and social inclusion for thousands of children and adults across Ukraine. The Community has also built one of the largest AAC networks in the region, with more than 10,000 members in Ukrainian social media and continuing partnerships with international experts. Through this systems-level leadership, Dr. Hanna Usatenko and Dr. Oksana Kryvonogova have made original and nationally significant contributions to the development of inclusive communication policy and practice in Ukraine.
About us
AAC Community in Ukraine is a community and nonprofit organization uniting AAC users, family members, educators, therapists, and professionals committed to communication access for people with speech and language impairments. We are experts in assistive technologies for communication and have built one of the first coordinated national user-centered AAC movements in Ukraine, bringing together stakeholders around the shared vision of communication without barriers.
Since 2018, we have been developing a sustainable professional and user community by integrating the best international practices in speech support, inclusive communication, and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) into the Ukrainian context. Our work has helped transform fragmented local practices into a growing national system of standards, training, and practical implementation.
Mission
Communication is more than words. We help children and adults communicate effectively, stay connected with others, and achieve greater autonomy in education, family life, employment, and community participation through augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools, strategies, and evidence-based solutions. Our mission is to remove communication barriers and ensure that every person has the right to express needs, make choices, build relationships, and participate fully in society.
Through training, advocacy, accessible resources, and practical AAC implementation, we strengthen inclusion and independence for people with speech, language, and communication disabilities across Ukraine. By adapting international best practices to the Ukrainian language and cultural context, we are helping build a sustainable national system where communication access becomes a recognized human right and a pathway to dignity, opportunity, and social impact through AAC tools and solutions.
Facts and outcomes
Since 2018, the AAC Community in Ukraine, led by Dr. Hanna Usatenko and Dr. Oksana Kryvonogova, has created measurable national impact through innovation, education, and systems-building in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Their leadership helped establish AAC as a recognized field supporting communication rights and inclusion across Ukraine.
The Community launched the first free Ukrainian-language digital AAC platform and mobile app DI mobi in 2021, supported by Huawei Ukraine and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The platform introduced more than 300 Ukrainian communication symbols with speech output, expanding daily communication access for children and adults with complex communication needs.
Our free nationwide AAC education programs on YouTube reached more than 20,000 views in the first six months during the pandemic (2020), significantly increasing access to specialized training for families, educators, and therapists. This initiative was recognized as a finalist of the Partnership for Sustainability Award for social impact in 2020.
During Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Community rapidly developed free emergency AAC posters, evacuation boards, and crisis communication materials. These resources were adopted by hundreds of Inclusive Resource Centers in Ukraine and shared globally to support refugees with communication disabilities.
The Community has built international partnerships with ISAAC International, ISAAC Polska, and ASSIST Foundation (Bulgaria) and has represented Ukraine at global conferences since 2018, strengthening Ukraine’s visibility in assistive technology, disability inclusion, and AAC practice worldwide.
Team
Oksana Kryvonogova serves as the Head of the Community of AAC Users and Professionals in Ukraine. She is also a co-founder of the Early Intervention Association and a visionary leader in this field. For many years, Oksana has been advancing the implementation of early intervention and AAC practices nationwide. Under her leadership, her team has made a substantial contribution to building the methodological foundation of AAC in Ukraine, fostering professional collaboration and sustainable system development.
Dr. Hanna Usatenko, PhD in Psychology, is a leading Ukrainian specialist in assistive technology for communication and inclusive education. She was recognized as a project manager in a national social partnership between Huawei Ukraine and the Ministry of Science and Education, overseeing the Digital Inclusion App initiative that expanded communication access for children with speech and communication impairments. Hanna is the co-founder of the AAC Community of Ukraine, a professional and user-driven organization promoting assistive communication technologies and inclusion nationwide.
Oksana Hahanova has dedicated more than ten years to managing projects within the social enterprise DyvoGra and the AAC Community of Ukraine. A psychologist and social worker by training, she has provided essential methodological support and made a significant contribution to the development of the AAC field in Ukraine, strengthening its professional standards and practical applications nationwide.
Dr. Marharyta Chaika, PhD and patent author in AAC methodology, is a co-author of the AAC Community’s national training courses. For many years, she has been building the methodological foundation of AAC in Ukraine, adapting international best practices to the Ukrainian language and cultural context, thus ensuring that communication systems reflect local linguistic and cognitive realities.
Olena Syniavska, Head of the Sign Language Division, interpreter, and early intervention specialist, acts as an expert and advocate for the rights and inclusion of people with hearing impairments in Ukraine. Her leadership bridges the fields of AAC and sign language, promoting accessible communication for children and adults across diverse linguistic needs.
Zhanna Shymanska brings extensive leadership experience from managing a state center and collaborating with international organizations as an expert in AAC and inclusive education. Her professional focus on accessibility policies and institutional development has advanced cross-sector cooperation, helping embed AAC principles within Ukraine’s educational and social systems.
What we do
We teach people to use symbols and pictures, signs and gestures, sign language, digital solutions for communication. We also promote reading in children with special educational needs.
AAC provides connection to the world for people with speech impairments, autism, aphasia, cerebral palsy and other disabilities or developmental disorders. We have been developing the national AAC system in collaboration with the government, partnering NGOS
In AAC in Ukraine, we combined years of previous expertise to implement a modern approach to social integration for people with disabilities. AAC could also be used for foreigners to study local languages, in emergency situations, for first aid, in rehabilitation after operations and traumas, etc. We constantly conduct AAC impact research and represent Ukraine at international events.
AAC Community in Ukraine is a national nonprofit community and professional network uniting AAC users, families, educators, therapists, and advocates to advance communication access in Ukraine. We promote disability inclusion through the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in all their diversity, consistent with United Nations principles and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Community has translated international inclusion standards into practical Ukrainian solutions, helping ensure that communication access is recognized as a fundamental human right rather than a specialized service.
AAC Community in Ukraine is a national nonprofit community and professional network uniting AAC users, families, educators, therapists, and advocates to advance communication access in Ukraine. We promote disability inclusion through the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in all their diversity, consistent with United Nations principles and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Community has translated international inclusion standards into practical Ukrainian solutions, helping ensure that communication access is recognized as a fundamental human right rather than a specialized service.
A community of AAC users, professionals, relatives, AAC advocates in Ukrainian social media is more than 10 000 people. We adapt international standards in assistive technologies for communication and create methodological recommendations for the state educational system.
Free online courses are available about AAC in Ukrainian at DyvoGra Youtube channel. Please see AAC Community current projects here
The war in Ukraine demanded an immediate response in 2022. See our posters with pictograms for safety and symbols of our partners for Ukrainian refugees.
Values
We are driven by joy of helping people in their personal and professional growth. We respect individual autonomy and support people with speech disabilities, their families and professionals to maintain meaningful connections.
Our activities are grounded upon UN Goals of Sustainable Development
Impact
In 2020 a project of social partnership with international business and state educational institutions was awarded with a Partnership for Sustainability Award in Ukraine. The name of the project was “Alternative and augmentative communication. Opportunities for therapy and social integration for people with autism spectrum disorder and speech and language impairments”. As a result educational products with AAC and an online course for communicative partners were created. This free video course about AAC recorded within the initiative was viewed 20 000 times during just the 1st month.
We keep principles:
- Accountability
We are accountable to users and families, NGOs and local communities, educators and social workers we are working for creating the national evidence based AAC system.
- Accessibility
Ensuring that persons with disabilities have access, on an equal basis with others, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies, systems and physical environment to reach them
- Humanity and respect to dignity
Nothing about us without us. We embrace the Leave No One Behind principle by reducing inequalities and discrimination through communication access. We strengthen people’s skills and support every individual’s ability to express themselves, make choices, and participate fully in society by providing access to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools and services.
In 2021, an app, Digital Inclusion, was created with the support of Huawei Ukraine and using the expertise of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine as a sustainable result of this partnership. AAC Community core team prepared the content and methodology. This tool is free for users and could be downloaded at dimobi.org.ua.
Dr. Hanna Usatenko leads adaption of international standards in assistive technologies for communication and create methodic recommendations for the state educational system. In 2021 the first handbook about AAC in education was published by DyvoGra Social Enterprise for Ukrainian educators.
Impact
We use Ukrainian localized symbols created by DyvoGra Social Enterprise associated with Dr. Hanna Usatenko and her team. Starting from 2015 DyvoGra promotes assistive technologies in Ukraine and creates products for speech and communication development with own set of pictograms. Part of the profit is aimed to create free posters with pictograms to raise a culture of assistive technologies in communities, families and educational institutions.
Research and partnership
Research results about pictograms and signs usage are presented on national conferences and abroad, showing local expertise globally. We explore best AAC practices in Ukraine, share with colleagues and invite professionals from other countries to make lectures about AAC and assistance in communication for Ukrainian community.
We established educational partnership with Aldona Mysakowska-Adamczyk, President of organisation “Mówić bez Słów” , the Polish department of the world AAC organisation ISAAC. In a research field our experts take supervisions from prof. Stephen von Tetzchner, the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway and Olha Kochubeinyk, the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine. Find more at Research and partnership page
We are open to partnership with NGO, speech rehabilitation professionals, educational institutions and AAC suppliers.
Contacts
Please write us: partnership@aac.org.ua, hanna.usatenko@dyvogra.com
WhatsApp + 380937240621, Hanna Usatenko, co-founder, partnership manager