Aphasia changes how people communicate—but it doesn’t silence their voices. Advocacy gives those voices power.
Whether you’re a person with aphasia, a family member, a clinician, or a community ally, you can be an advocate. Advocacy helps raise awareness, improve services, influence policy, and shape research. It is essential to improving life for people with aphasia today—and for generations to come.
Advocacy means taking action to create change. For aphasia, that can mean:
You don’t need a title or special training. If you care, you can advocate.
If you are interested in advancing your advocacy work, consider joining our NAA Ambassador Program.
Advocacy isn’t only about research or big systems—it also happens in everyday moments. When you explain aphasia to a friend, ask your doctor to use simpler language, or tell your story to a local news outlet, you’re changing minds and breaking down barriers.
Advocates help:
Anyone. Everyone. You.
There is no “right” way to advocate. Every effort counts. Even wearing a t-shirt or carrying swag with the word APHASIA on it, will make a difference. Check out our online store at the Aphasia Marketplace
Aphasia research is stronger when it includes the voices of the people it’s meant to help. Advocates are changing the way research works by:
People with aphasia and their families are no longer just study participants—they are partners in discovery.
At the National Aphasia Association, we support this shift by funding research that centers lived experience, such as through our Barbara Martin Aphasia Research Grants and new PPA Research Grants. We also include individuals with aphasia, care partners and providers on vital organizational committees and task forces.
