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Aphasia is a paradox-- it impairs the use of language but not the ability to think.

Words are simply trapped in one's head. People usually acquire aphasia without warning after a stroke or brain injury -- a person can wake up and read the morning newspaper, and by lunch, be completely unable to understand the paper or explain that he cannot understand it.

Compounding this frustration is the fact that people with communication disorders are perhaps the most stigmatized and invisible disability group. More than one million Americans have acquired aphasia, a greater number of people than have cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, or muscular dystrophy.

Approximately 25-40% of the estimated 13 million Americans who suffer a stroke will acquire aphasia.

The National Aphasia Association was established in 1987 to help individuals further their ability to communicate and move forward with their lives.

Each year we provide information and support to thousands of people affected by aphasia through: * a toll-free information hot line -- (800) 922-4622, which receives over 5,000 calls a year * our web site -- www.aphasia.org, which recorded over 400,000 visits to the home page in 2008 * publications and a registry of more than 400 community support groups across the country * a national network of health care professionals that volunteers to answer questions about local resources * "Speaking Out," a formerly biannual national, but now regional conference for people with aphasia, family members and rehabilitation professionals. * materials for Aphasia Awareness Month, which are distributed to groups and individuals throughout the country.

* Emergency Responder Training project to teach EMTs, Firefighters and Police Officers how to identify and communicate a Person with Aphasia in an emergency situation.

Martha Taylor Sarno, MA, MD (hon) founded the NAA in 1987 to respond to the needs of people with aphasia, which were not being met by the existing systems.

Dr. Sarno is an internationally recognized leader in the rehabilitation of people with communication disorders and Professor at New York University School of Medicine and Director of the Speech-Language Pathology Department at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine.

She found that the psychosocial consequences of aphasia were as disabling -- if not more so -- than the physical effects of a stroke.

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