OpenAAC

Some people have a knack for fixing problems or coming up with ideas before others have even noticed a need. We want to honor those folks, and help bring awareness to the high-quality solutions that exist in the world of AAC. To help with all of that, OpenAAC hosts an annual awards program for all things AAC.

The knAAC Awards

Short for "Keepers and Noteworthies in AAC", the knAAC Awards is not like most other awards programs. Like a lot of things related to AAC, the knAAC Awards may be different than you expect. Most everyone working on AAC-related projects are doing it for really good reasons, so it doesn't make sense to pick and say "this one's the best". Instead, the knAAC awards are a chance to highlight ALL of the nominees while giving someone a chance to shine.

The knAAC Awards are given to products, organizations, and individuals voted as "keepers" for their long-term quality, or "noteworthies" for their current contributions -- or both! The goal, again, is to help bring attention to those who are making a difference for good in the AAC community on an ongoing basis.

Categories include awards for apps, vocabularies, web sites, devices, and individuals -- there's a lot going on in AAC, if you didn't know! And that's part of why we do this, to help everyone know what possibilities are out there, and who to follow to stay on top of the latest work and research. As you browse the lists of nominees, keep an eye out for new ideas and interesting possibilities -- information about AAC doesn't always make it everywhere it needs to, so hopefully these awards can help with that!

Nominations are collected by the OpenAAC team, with feedback from industry experts, and based partly on the results of our annual State of AAC data collection surveys. Highlights are chosen by ranked votes during the open voting period, combined with selections from our judging team. After the voting has closed, we will compute tallies based on all the voted submitted and announce that year's highlights in each category.

Stay tuned for updates on the 2024 knAAC Awards nominees, and opportunities to vote!