# Plain Language Summary of the AACCENT Act

This bill creates a new federal program to help millions of Americans who have difficulty speaking communicate more effectively. The government will establish three national centers across different regions of the country to provide training, resources, and technical assistance focused on augmentative and alternative communication—basically any tool, technology, or method that helps people communicate when they can't rely on speech alone. This includes everything from speech-generating devices and computer programs to picture boards and sign language support. The bill estimates that at least four million Americans struggle to meet their daily communication needs through natural speech, and many of these people currently face discrimination, isolation, and limited opportunities in education, employment, and everyday life.

The three centers will be run by partnerships where people with significant communication disabilities are in leadership positions, working alongside universities and professional organizations. Each center will have an advisory council made up entirely of people with communication disabilities who bring diverse backgrounds, races, ethnicities, ages, and experiences. These centers will focus on training teachers, healthcare providers, employers, and families about communication access; helping people advocate for themselves; collecting better data about who needs these services; and raising public awareness about communication rights. The bill specifically recognizes that people from racial and ethnic minority communities face extra barriers in getting access to these communication tools and services, so the centers will work to address these disparities.

The federal government will spend up to nine million dollars per year to fund these three centers for five-year periods. This is a relatively modest investment aimed at addressing what the bill describes as ongoing discrimination against people with communication disabilities—three decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, many people still can't access the communication support they need to participate fully in school, work, and community life. By establishing these centers of expertise and making them led by people with lived experience of communication disabilities, the bill aims to ensure that communication access becomes a priority across schools, workplaces, healthcare systems, and government agencies.

AACCENT Act

Dingell, Debbie

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Centers of Excellence and National Technical Assistance Act or the AACCENT ActThis bill establishes a grant program to create national resource centers on augmentative and alternative communication.Specifically, the bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to award three grants in geographically diverse regions to establish a network of these resource centers for individuals with significant expressive communication disabilities, particularly through improved access to tools, technologies, strategies, training, and other methods.Significant expressive communication disabilities are communication disabilities (other than communication disabilities that are primarily visual or auditory in nature) that prevent or significantly limit an individual from understanding or being understood using spoken words.Nogales Wastewater Improvement Act of 2023The bill also establishes requirements to address wastewater from the International Outfall Interceptor, which is a pipeline that carries wastewater from the United States-Mexico border to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant. The plant, which is located in Rio Rico, Arizona, treats sewage and wastewater originating from Nogales, Mexico, and Nogales, Arizona.The bill transfers the ownership, operations, and maintenance of the pipeline from the city of Nogales, Arizona, to the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission. The commission must construct, operate, and maintain a debris screen at the pipeline's Manhole One for intercepting debris and drugs coming into the United States from Nogales, Mexico.The bill also limits the portion of the costs that the city of Nogales, Arizona, must pay for the Nogales sanitation project.