Hobson's Choice, Nonverbal Autism, Technology, And The Myth Of No Future

A Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one thing is offered. Because a person may refuse to accept what is offered, the two options are taking it or taking nothing. In other words, one may "take it or leave it." Wikipedia

Mu in a plum colored t-shirt, at age six on climbing bars at  the playground ©Kerima Çevik

There is a rhetorical question that representatives of institutions and service providers continually ask parents of autistic people. My husband and I first heard it at an IEP meeting when our son was four. It is a two-part question. 1. What kind of a future do you see for your son? 2. What will you do with him when he's 21?

This line of inquiry is meant to build up faux hope as we parents are supposed to be mourning for our autistic offspring as Edgar Allan Poe mourned for his lost Lenore. Then they lay out their Hobson's choices. "Does your son like trucks?" They asked, not really caring. "He likes watching construction vehicles in action," I answered, wondering where this was going. "Well, maybe we can train him to be a garbage collector." At another meeting, I answered the rhetorical question with, "He loves to sky watch by looking from his picture window on days of inclement weather." Their response was "then he'd make a great janitor." His father and I stared at one another in shock, wondering what one thing had to do with another. At one point I tried to discuss his strengths. "He likes lining up particular things. When he was a baby I used to give him plastic juice bottles filled with water dyed in rainbow colors and he'd line them up to look exactly like sunlight refracted through a prism. It amazed us." Their answer? "Oh, he's a trainable [insert r-word] that's great." "He can be taught to collect shopping carts and maybe even stock shelves."

 Because he's a nonspeaking autistic. Nonspeaking, to them, always equaled nonthinking. They don't actually listen to what you are saying. They don't actually see your children's worth when observing them. Their one-two punches, the rhetorical questions followed by their Hobson's choices are part of a myth that nonspeaking autistic people have no future. Their personal bias morphs into the professional opinion that they can't conceive of living without verbal speech, or navigating life with a combination of no verbal speech and intellectual disability so it is not possible.

Very recently I was asked the "what do you see your son doing in five years" derivative rhetorical question. I had to bite my tongue. I wanted to answer "I see my son continuingly chemically altering his RNA to adapt to changes in his environment, the way cephalopods do." Or "I see my son as the first nonspeaking President of the United States." I really considered just giving one of those two answers and watching that interviewer's face as they tried to process what I had just answered.

I'm tired of the entire "your son has no future so here are your Hobson's choices that you need to pay for" circular rhetorical question thing. To counter it,  I thought I'd discuss my real view of the possibilities for a community based, minimally invasive, autonomous life for my son after he grows up and as he ages in a series of posts beginning with this one.

Mu at age 5 signs what he wants to drink and what groceries he wants to buy
while his sister puts them in the cart. He keeps himself on
her arm to keep himself oriented © Kerima Çevik

From our parental perspective, we see that since our son's diagnosis, technology has directly and repeatedly improved the quality of his life and therefore our lives as well. This means future planning choices being presented as his only options right now won't be valid when he's 21 and therefore should keep changing even as I type this article. What bothers me is that the historical structures built to advocate for autistic stakeholders are heartbreakingly slow to keep pace with the technology that changes how we are all living.  That means those offering choices in future planning for nonspeaking autistics fail at the job of providing modern solutions in assistive technology, accommodations, and supports meant to truly include nonspeaking autistic people in communities of the future. Structural ableism and a hierarchy of disability bias against nonspeaking autistic clients are firmly sitting in the way of achievable solutions.

Particularly in autism services, solutions that allow nonspeaking autistic children and adults to leap forward don't come from established channels, they come from completely new directions. Before the iPhone and Proloquo2go AAC, a Dynavox or similar AAC device was not affordable for nonspeaking autistics of color without a source of funding such as Medicaid. Most schools, therefore, rejected the urgent need for students like my son to be taught to use AAC devices and generally offered only minimal speech supports, despite the clear fact that ability to communicate is the primary challenge of a nonspeaking autistic pupil. Apple's mass production of iPods and iPads began the first steps to communication rights for nonspeaking autistics in particular. That is a transformative change in one major aspect of autistic assistive tech that no one in the service provision or professional service industries saw coming.

Education pathways for nonspeaking autistic students are stagnant because school administrations don't accept that nonspeaking autistic students have learning potential. We have the technology and the infrastructure, as shown by Khan Academy, Open Courseware and things like audio book services, as well as other free or low-cost quality online education models, to offer nonspeaking students lifelong learning possibilities to challenge and stimulate their minds wherever they live if they are given online access and the effort is made to adapt the learning to provide accessibility. This education enrichment, with goals to prep for everything from a literacy certificate to GED certificates, and even certifications in things that interest them in post-secondary education, are never offered as goals for nonspeaking autistics trapped in an education system that does not allow them to graduate at 21 with a high school diploma. No option to keep learning exists in the Hobson's choice of future planning.

Financial pathways do not plan for future banking technologies or how our offspring can be prepared to manage funds. It is simply assumed that we have no choice but to put our children's financial future  in trust, in the hands of attorneys and hope those attorneys don't turn out to be like disbarred lawyer Julie Kronhaus, who embezzled $1.5 million dollars from multiple clients' trust funds, including a disabled young woman whose family had won a settlement and put the money in trust for her care. Trusts are the only choices given us. We are simply supposed to accept that this is the only solution available to transitioning nonspeaking autistic adults. Yet we are nearing the end of the age of paper money, and as financial institutions rush to get the technology necessary to produce legal tender similar to Bitcoin, and Amazon is changing the way we shop such that a cash register is no longer necessary and food deserts can be overcome with an internet connection, disability service organizations and service providers continue forcibly pushing future financial solutions that increase risk of theft or fraud.

Community housing pathways always seem to default to group home placement after the passing of parent care providers and this means that autistic adults who may have never been in a group home situation in their lives are suddenly removed from their own homes and placed in institutional settings when technology makes such an action expensive and completely unnecessary.  No one considered changing laws so that estates inherited by nonspeaking autistic adult offspring can be future planned and adjusted for direct to service in-home care that is minimally invasive and keeps the disabled adult seamlessly in the family home that they know how to navigate and are accustomed to. No one has considered developing smart home technology to assist in keeping orphaned autistic adults in their homes for the remainder of their lives. No one thinks of high-tech micro-housing as a safe and affordable community living option for nonspeaking autistic adults. That would take work, foresight, caring about their clients. Unfortunately, independent parent driven community living models are basically private institutions, complete with prison guard-like security staff and the traditional highly invasive staffing for care, like this example from North Texas.

I do not support traditional group home or full on institutional housing models being independently built by an increasing number of affluent groups of parents. I am saying we autism parents are acting against the basic principles inherent in the Olmstead Decision with these horrific housing options when what we should be working on are options like minimally invasive, community integrated solutions for our grown children. Just because we are building it doesn't mean it is any different from any other mental institution, even if parents with the best intentions create it.

We need to rethink future planning for our transitioning autistic people. We need to start thinking about what senior care looks like for aging autistic people who have the human right to continue to live in the communities they've spent their lives in after those who were their lifetime care providers pass away. And I'm sorry, that is not throwing them in custom built groups homes or private mental institutions with guards and staff.

 In 2010, the first MedCottage, a smart home for senior care as an alternative to nursing homes, was rolled out and marketed.

These pods are far from perfect, but they demonstrate that when we are considering solutions for transitioning autistic offspring or aging autistic siblings who might require intensive supports, we need to push boundaries beyond the Hobson's choices offered us and fight for Olmstead decision compliant adaptive housing options like these pods that keep our loved ones in our families and in our communities as is their human right. We need to leverage existing technology and develop assistive technology solutions that expand future planning options for autistic people. This begins with expanding our thinking about what our autistic loved ones can do, how they can live included in society rather than isolated, guarded, and invasively managed distantly from it. Begin with pushing back against the tide of gaslighting professionals and service providers forcing Hobson's choices of no-future so institutionalize myth on us.

Here is where I see my son in the future:
My son, like any young adult, will be able to own a car, because driverless cars will be in mass production and one will be adapted to his needs, to take him directly to and from his daytime appointments to home based on his schedule. Emergency locations will be there for him to choose from a touchscreen device should he feel unwell when entering the vehicle. 
My son will have a job in something he's interested in, even pushing shopping carts, not because someone decided that is all he's good enough to do, but because he is motivated, interested, and has the will to do that work.
My son will be housed in a minimally invasive, smart living space that he will be able to live in and manage as autonomously as possible. The bathroom will be self-cleaning. The floors will be cushioned to prevent broken bones in case of a fall, and they will be maintained by cleaning bots. He will be able to prepare prepackaged healthy meals in a microwave that will sense what kind of food is in it and cook said food without the need for pushing additional settings. The microwave will not open until the hot food cannot burn him. He will also have a smart refrigerator that knows when groceries are needed. A plan will be in place to ensure at home supports are provided as he transitions so that in the event that one or both of us, his parents, pass away, he will be able to remain in that home without interruption and he will already have what support staff is needed in place to care for him. He will not need to have cash around nor will any staff have access to payment systems or funding. Grocery, household goods, clothing, will be sent as they are needed through buying habit bots determining when such things are in need of replacement and will be paid for without money changing hands. The house will be powered off the grid and therefore bills will not be an issue. A non-gasoline backup generator will come online in the event of an emergency. The pod will be able to withstand high winds and be equipped with a sprinkler system in case of fire. Outside meals will be purchased from an interactive touchscreen device not requiring verbal input and paid for prior to leaving so food can be either eaten at the location, picked up and brought home, or delivered without money changing hands. Purchases for entertainment venues and social events will be handled the same way. 
Each day he will be able to log on to an education program and retain knowledge as well as be challenged with new learning goals and coursework. This will continue at his pace for the rest of his life. 

No disabled person should live in poverty simply because they have transitioned to adulthood.

This is the future for all disabled adults as it is meant to be.
Make that future happen, don't fight for less.

Resources
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On the Right to Community Integration for People with Disabilities 
https://dredf.org/news/publications/disability-rights-law-and-policy/the-right-to-community-integration-for-people-with-disabilities-under-united-states-and-international-law/

The Embezzling Trust Fund Attorney Who Raided a Disabled Young Woman'sTrust Fund
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-julie-kronhaus-attorney-embezzle-kids-20160129-story.html

Parent built isolated, guarded, institutional mass housing project for high support need autistic adults with medical staff onsite 
https://www.dallasnews.com/business/business/2017/01/04/build-future-son-dallas-couple-plans-12-million-community-young-adults-autism

Google's Driverless Car Test Drive
Self-Driving Car Test: Steve Mahan
https://youtu.be/cdgQpa1pUUE
A First Drive
https://youtu.be/CqSDWoAhvLU

About MedCottages 
In the News
https://youtu.be/5RnY5CSwO9E
Website
https://smallhousebliss.com/2015/11/28/n2care-medcottage/
MedCottage Classic Plans on Sale for $29
https://store9854291.ecwid.com/

Ford's Driverless Cars
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/08/16/ford_says_it_will_mass_produce_a_driverless_car_by_2021.html

The First Smart Refrigerator
http://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/refrigerators/?cid=ppc-

Afterlife

The apocalypse came early. Our son was only 5 when the first bomb exploded in his life. It wasn’t his diagnosis day when we stood in shock while he played with toys in a pediatric neurologist’s office at one of the best medical centers in the world.  It wasn’t the labels they nailed to his person in an attempt to crucify him with the neurodivergence that made him forever distinguishable from his peers. The first day of the end of the world as he and all of us who love him knew it was when he came home from his early learning placement with a wound on his face and no note of explanation as to how it got there. That was the day we began the war of attrition for his safety and right to an education. But in the background, with a sound so soft that we could not quite hear it, a clock ticked away the minutes until what we called our life exploded, and life after the apocalypse began.

 Tic…Tic…Tic

Incident after incident, the unexplained injuries, the insults, the racial slurs, the unwillingness to try to educate him because by their own account he was too disabled for it to matter.
All my worst fears welled up and spilled into my sleep, flooding it with the nightmares of threats and gunfire, and a cross burning on my uncle’s lawn. The legacy of the one drop rule reared its hateful head, and structural racism came to claim my poor son, attacking him in his place of learning where he should have been safe because the ghost of his Black ancestors lived in his mother’s skin and in his face and eyes. Harm came like the four horsemen and I fought back as only a mother who knows the sound of the whip, the pounding hooves of disaster and stench of hate against her child can…

 Tic…Tic…Tic

We pulled him out of school. We consulted lawyers and learned they were more concerned with profiting off our son’s misfortunes than helping make things right. We hired educational consultants and learned they were more interested in good relations with the school district than fighting for the services and accommodations they admitted they knew our nonspeaking Autistic/Black/Indigenous/ American/Turkish/Italian/Hispanic son needed to achieve the dream of a “free and appropriate” education.  Our frustration when he came home starving each day and we couldn’t prove why built on itself until May 19th, the horrific day at an IEP meeting when they brought my lovely 5-year-old to the room and he hugged me and kept signing “food” and his cruel, disgusting teacher blithely said “um, we didn’t feed him lunch. He’s probably hungry. I’ll get some food for him.” It was 3 pm and I wanted to lunge across the meeting table and break my ages old vow of nonviolence and slap that monster WHY DID YOU NOT FEED MY SON WHEN WE PAY FOR LUNCHES IN ADVANCE AND BROUGHT EXTRA FOOD?!?  The shock of the matter of fact public revelation in the middle of a recorded IEP meeting robbed me of speech.

Tic…Tic…Tic…

New school, more harm, more lies, classrooms segregated by race, seclusion, more veiled threats, and one day, that awful phone call from another principal her voice breaking “we’ve lost your son. We don’t know when he went missing. We don’t know how long he’s been missing. We don't know how he could have exited the building.”

Tic…Tic…Tic… 

Disinterested local police, district school administrators more interested in managing the risk of a potential lawsuit and we are the only ones shouting OH MY GOD WHERE IS OUR SON? His father begins running from his office, running from the other side of Maryland towards the place where they lost our son while I scream silently over and over because he loves cars and buses and the ebb and flow of traffic and it is a cold February day and one of them says he has no shoes and no coat and I collapse in a chair but I can't hear myself because my daughter is shaking me and screaming "what's wrong what's wrong!?!" Calling the whole world because NO ONE IS HELPING and there is a pond behind the school and he can’t swim

Tic…Tic…Tic… 
Found? Some stranger, a man, brings him, wet, scared, and asks “is this his school?” The principal stutters over the phone, “Someone found him. He’s okay; he’s with the school nurse.” I look at his big sister and say the words and we rush, running to get him. The principal stands as if waiting for a physical blow from me. I look down at her, not hearing or caring what she's saying and almost whisper, “give me my son.” My husband is howling at the superintendent of schools and howling at the train that seems to not be moving fast enough and howling with the fear that irreparable harm may have been done to his youngest child and only son. Meanwhile his sister and I grab our boy, my oldest child cradling her baby brother like porcelain, nearly carrying him out the school doors although he is over half her weight and so tall his head nearly reached her shoulders and we RUN out of that hell hole and now we sit at his doctor’s office, where all the staff heard and the doctor who should have closed shop an hour ago is waiting to do that awful exam for signs of rape and we wait, wait, wait while the doctor calms him and wait, not breathing and when he smiles at us with tears standing in his eyes and whispers “he’s okay, he’s okay” his sister and I hug one another and cry and cry until he becomes worried and begins to fuss. We hug him and dress him and place him in his special needs stroller and wheel him out and someone from the staff mumbles, “we have your insurance but today’s visit is free” and it is only then that we see that the staff is standing, tears falling silently from faces that once wore the indifferent and uncomfortable expressions of those who can’t tolerate disabled children but must serve them because they mean a paycheck.

Tic…Tic…Tic… Tic… …Boom went our lives.
 Because one thing some school districts know how to do is cover up and retaliate.  Public school is no longer safe; in fact, it never was. I look at the Montessori work we did on school breaks, do a consult with a Montessori teacher and then comes the gathering of equipment and the paperwork filing and the swearing under my breath that they would not put our son in danger again. How do I take this on? How do I educate him? I am overwhelmed. The room spins.
Boom!
Our daughter changes her college plans. She stays in Maryland. She changes her major. She helps me teach her brother, becoming his paraprofessional and his respite care provider when she learns of exhaustion in me so acute I collapse. My husband works for two for a very long time. He brings home his paycheck and moonlights to bring in mine. I meet my son, without barriers, without being told how to treat him, without anyone telling me I can’t handle him or he can’t learn or retain what is taught him for the first time since his diagnosis.

He is stubborn. So stubborn I laugh in frustration. So charming I am undone. So loud with the use of body language his presence fills a room, yet so quiet that I can hear our breaths in the silence of the day’s tasks.  He and I begin our quiet, bright dance of give-and-take. I was meant to teach him, but he patiently teaches me, to tolerate, to listen with my eyes as well as my ears, to see the places, things, textures that overwhelm him, to read and prep and comfort and let him go and grow.

Afterlife is silent. 
Beyond the blasted landscape of disappointment and destroyed trust, a green sprout of optimism fights its way out. Hope after harm. He slowly begins to smile again. Year one after the apocalypse and the screaming when anyone male enters a room stops. Year three is the beginning of food security. He begins to really believe he won’t go hungry even if he misbehaves. Year four and he’s laughing on FaceTime as his father uses his lunch break to see his son each day.

Father and son FaceTime while I act as IT support for our son. ©Kerima Cevik

Afterlife is safe. 
It is warmed with our happiness and peace of mind. It is filled with the few sounds our son makes. Laughter, sometimes nervous giggles, the sound of his running jumping and hooting, the silent gestures that comprise our arguments when he refuses to do his schoolwork. Year five sees a new growth. We spend the year teaching him to not be afraid of the dark. No matter what we sit together and hold fast to one another. Never secluded again. He learns to laugh at the night and look at the moon as his friend.

Afterlife cannot be forever.
He will have to return to the outside world and the cruel, racist, ableist, creatures that live in it. The greater world is his birthright and mine. He must survive the world beyond the sweetness of afterlife. Year five we try to ease him back but schools hold grudges and his is the first of a landslide of cases that nearly ruin a principal’s career. So off we go, to another county, to begin again.

Afterlife is greener now. 
Tiny verdant sprouts of hope for his future are growing into a lush green meadow of rye, ripening to gold, waiting for harvest. The understanding in this new location is as deep as the ignorance was in the other. Trust is building a path towards our son. Are the bricks leading back to inclusion? We just don’t know.
The apocalypse is not quite, but almost, forgotten.

Afterlife is beautiful. 
But beautiful Autistic boys grow up and need to become strong men. Time for mother and father to keep opening the path to the greater world.

Life is calling.

-----------------------------------

For my beloved husband and children in loving gratitude

With thanks to Selene DePackh, because who we are is not the pain we endure, but those  beautiful things we create in spite of it.

Dear John (Elder Robison)

Dear John,

Remember during the efforts for the freedom of Reginald Neli Latson when I said that I was for the first time, doing something I thought I would never do; and then, I posted something you wrote and shared it on social media? When you asked what drove me to make such a statement I wrote back that our writing is entirely different as I write about the marginalized populations within the autism conversation?

I need to also say I avoid reading some of what you write because I wish to not respond emotionally to it and be hurt by your words. I occasionally forget my vows to avoid your content and read something you write. I then regret doing so. Not because it isn’t well written, but because I view the world so entirely differently from you that when you make a statement from that large platform you have, and that statement has the potential to harm people like my son by influencing the way people view him and his peers, I get angry.

Here is an example, from a blog post for Psychology Today titled “April is Autism Awareness / Acceptance Month.”  You write, “We may have gifts too, but disability remains the basis for diagnosis. Some autistic people are rendered non-speaking by their condition, and I can’t imagine who would celebrate that. Others live with significant medical complications like epilepsy. I’ve yet to meet anyone who celebrates that either.”

Crohn's patient Bethamy Townsend Celebrating her honeymoon
and  rocking a Bikini with colostomy bags credit HuffPost UK

Let’s just pause for a brief statement on living with significant medical complications. I live with Crohn’s disease and other health issues. I have survived a great deal. I celebrate being here, as does my family each day I outlast expiration dates, because I was told I would neither have children nor live to age 30.

When you write about nonspeaking autistic people, people like my son, your writing perpetuates the same ableism that people who are not autistic (and have no concept of what the experience of autism is for nonspeaking individuals) does. Have you asked a nonspeaking autistic person if they wish to celebrate? Not being able to use one’s vocal chords to produce speech does not mean not being able to think or communicate. Over and over again, human beings demonstrate neurological competence in the face of medical diagnoses that negate competence. We have examples like Jean-Dominique Bauby, who produced an entire book after waking from a coma and while being paralyzed such that only one eye functioned.  Your statement discounts the research of British neuroscientist Adrian Owen, who, to quote an article on brain activity:

“ …described a patient who showed all the clinical signs of a vegetative state but whose brain activity suggested a considerable degree of consciousness. Horrifyingly, the report implied the existence of patients in a state worse than the usual locked-in syndrome: conscious but without any means of expressing it to the outside world, not even through the batting of an eyelid. While demolishing established clinical rules, this research also carried a message of hope: brain imaging was now sensitive enough to detect the presence of a conscious mind and even to reconnect it with the outside world.“

This news is cause to celebrate. What it means is that some measure of neurological competence can now be detected by brain imaging. That means a greater population of nonspeaking people have the potential to be understood whether they speak or not. Evidence like this urges us to presume competence exists in nonspeaking people and respect them accordingly.

Martin Pistorius and wife, Joanna credit NPR

This statement you wrote ignores what autistics like Carly Fleischmann, Emma Zurcher-Long, Henry Frost, Amy Sequenzia, and nonspeaking disabled adults like Martin Pistorius stand for, and what they
say when asked about being a nonspeaking person prior to finding a means to communicate. All say that they are presumed incompetent, maltreated, and were entirely dismissed prior to being able to let the world know that their brains understood what was being said about them and what was being done to them. We have seen a brain command an exoskeleton encasing a paralyzed body to kick a soccer ball. We have heard people who learned to type and use AAC to communicate tell us that being in what medical professionals define as a vegetative state, or being a nonspeaking person, does not mean you don’t think, feel, and understand, and yet you still see no cause for people like my son to celebrate?

My son’s very survival is a miracle. He doesn’t have to prove his competence by demonstration of savant talent. Pity is not wanted or required. You don’t know him. I do. He NEVER gives up. He overcomes his fears daily and takes great personal risks to reach out and communicate with us. Nearly everyone in society doesn't feel his life is worth celebrating. That includes some autistic adults who use verbal speech. But our family feels the way our son lives his life, and his repeated demonstrations of personhood in a world that denies him competence, make him a heroic person. He is a stronger person than anyone I’ve met. I’m over 50 and have travelled extensively, so when I say anyone I mean anyone in a very large pool of human beings. I know I am not alone in being a witness to the greatness of a human spirit as it overcomes so many obstacles and shouts with all means available to be heard. I am so sorry you do not feel that is worth celebrating.

It is neither my intention nor my wish to deconstruct your entire piece. I only hope to demonstrate one of the reasons there is this canyon divide between how you and I view autistic people like my son. He doesn’t just exist. He lives in bright, live, movements and gestures that communicate his joys, sorrows, struggles and victories.

Each April we remember all we were told he could not and would not do that he has already done. We celebrate his right to personhood not qualified by a savant skill to justify it. I will continue to do so. Because he, like so many others I’ve met who are out there demonstrating their competence everyday, are worth it.

I don’t call the month of April Autism Awareness or Acceptance Month anymore. I call April the month of Mustafa and his neurotribe. I call it the month of possibility. The month of pride in obstacles overcome, and the month of the idea that autistic can be an identity without qualifiers or conditions, deserving of respect and worth celebrating.

Of course the public needs to be educated about what autism is, but that is because what we call autism continues to change and at each evolution the definition of what diverges and what that means changes with it. Of course we need help. I don’t think anyone including my son would deny that he needs accommodation and supports to access our community. He knows I am aging, I tire, and families need help too. But that doesn't mean that who he or his peers are should be denigrated or thought of as unworthy of celebration because it diverges from those autistic people who are less distinguishable from typical peers.

I will try, going forward, to read more of your words. Honestly this is the only way in which I can understand what you wish to communicate fully. In exchange, I ask that you try reading the words of nonspeaking neurodivergent people who communicate by other means. Reach out to them and use your platform and your words to help rather than expressing you see no cause to celebrate the idea that they are nonspeaking.

I think this would help us both understand one another better.  Happy Autism month, John.

Sincerely,

Kerima

Facebook Notes Series: My Standing Position on Facilitated Communication

Originally Posted on author's Facebook Page, April 21, 2014

Facilitated Communication, or FC, is the memorial whipping post of autism. An easy target to malign because fraud is always big news; many who do so are not aware that they are falling into an ableist point of view because said criticism is founded on the presumption of the incompetence of the user of this method as AAC support.

My issue with FC criticism is that medical malpractice is more frequent and widespread than FC fraud, but we don't discredit modern medicine, and we don't tell people not to seek medical help. Psychiatric fraud and malpractice are more widespread, but we don't discredit the practice of psychiatry. In fact one of the most devastating chapters in autism history was Bruno Bettelheim and the entire psychiatric community insisting on legitimizing his dissemination of the unfounded "refrigerator mom" theory of autism ( "although [ Leo] Kanner was instrumental in framing the refrigerator mother theory, it was Bruno Bettelheim, a University of Chicago professor and child development specialist, who facilitated its widespread acceptance both by the public and by the experts in the medical establishment in the 1950s and 1960s." - Wikipedia).  An entire generation of mothers and their autistic children were irreparably harmed, all from a concept that was horrific, because the psychiatric community was not held to account for what the man was doing simply because of his professional label.

Cases of FC fraud should prompt the kind of response fraud in any other human services area does; that is a call for stringent standards and vetting for facilitators. It should not (based upon the presumption of incompetence of the nonspeaking participant, which isableist) be thrown out. Situations like these are why the cliche "throwing the baby out with the bath water" was created. Articles critiquing FC  facilitators should be doing just that. Not attacking the method, but shedding light on how important it is that standards be set for those facilitating, just as standards are set for quality of all those assisting and providing support to individuals in our community.

So:

1. Presume competence of nonspeaking autistic individuals. Sue Rubin, Jamie Burke, Amy Sequenzia , Sharisa Kochmeister and countless others show us that the ultimate goal of assisted typing can be achieved though reaching that goal may take years.

2. Critique the fraud by all means but realize that malpractice and fraud are rampant and this should never prevent a method from being explored or applied. Celebrate the successes of this type of AAC as well.

3. Call for better quality standards in managing those who are trained to facilitate. Because the consumer is a nonspeaking one, it is important that strong self advocacy skills be established in the consumer as well. Be part of a solution. Improve the lives of nonspeaking people, don't take away the legitimacy of their speech support and marginalize them. There is a great deal of room on this giant ship of autism. Let's let everyone get onboard.

This post generated 56 shares and 87 comments. I will try to add some of the comments which were posted references below.

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http://tinygracenotes.blogspot.com/2012/12/i-was-self-loathing-fc-skeptic.html
http://emmashopebook.com/2014/03/28/seeing-others-write-to-communicate/
http://tinygracenotes.blogspot.com/2013/07/dealing-with-family-matters-of-constant.html

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1994). Facilitated communication [Technical Report]. Available from www.asha.org/policy. http://www.asha.org/docs/html/TR1994-00139.html#AP2 [Particularly important are The Final Recommendations: http://www.asha.org/docs/html/TR1994-00139.html#sec1.12 and Appendix 2: Minority Statement to Technical Report on Facilitated Communication and Response from Subcommittee Chair http://www.asha.org/docs/html/TR1994-00139.html#AP2] Accessed 25 April 2013.

Bailey, Judy, 2006, Dealing with Silence and Coming Out of Silence, http://www.everyonecommunicates.org/.../ComingOutOfSilenc..., Accessed 30 April 2013

Bailey, Judy, 2007, Slides from a Presentation given by Judy C. Bailey, M.Ed.,at Ellensburg, Washington, Summer 2007, http://www.everyonecommunicates.org/.../Ellensburg2007.html, Accessed 30 April 2013  http://www.everyonecommunicates.org/nutshell.html

Bailey, Judy, 2005, Thoughts on Facilitated Communication Training (FCT): What If…?, http://www.everyonecommunicates.org/.../ThoughtsOnFCT.html, Accessed 30 April 2013

Brandl, Charlene, Sometimes It Can Be Hard to Believe, Grandma Char and lessons learned, 25 March 2013, http://www.grandmacharslessonslearned.blogspot.co.uk/..., Accessed 17 April 2013.

Brandl, Charlene, Why I Do What I Do, Grandma Char and lessons learned, 11 January 2013, http://www.grandmacharslessonslearned.blogspot.co.uk/..., Accessed 17 April 2013

Crossley, Rosemary, Issues of Influence: Some Concerns and Suggestions, Facilitated Communication Digest, Vol.1 No.3 (May 1993) [pp 11-12], reprinted at Institute on Communication and Inclusion, Syraceuse University http://soe.syr.edu/.../doc.../2011/8/Issues_of_Influence.pdf Accessed 23 April 2013.

Crossley, Rosemary, Literacy and Facilitated Communication Training, Facilitated Communication Digest, Vol.1 No.2 (Feb 1993) [pp 12-13], reprinted at Institute on Communication and Inclusion, Syraceuse University http://soeweb.syr.edu/.../Literacy_and_Facilitated... Accessed 23 April 2013.

Crossley, Rosemary & Borthwick, Chris. 2002, "What Constitutes Evidence?" Presented at the Seventh Biennial ISAAC (International Society for Alternative and Augmentative Communication) Research Symposium, Odense, Denmark, 2002, https://attachment.fbsbx.com/file_download.php... Accessed 24 April 2013.
Fransden, Mike, Examiner Health & Fitness, 9 October 2010, Facilitated Communication (FC) enables non-verbal people on autism spectrum to communicate by typing, http://www.examiner.com/.../facilitated-communication-fc..., Accessed 16 April 2013.

ASHA Practice Policy - Browse by Topic
Below are the official documents of the Association related to a particular topic. You can also browse documents by year and by type of document.
ASHA.ORG

Jasuta, Stephanie Sherbel, Speaking Up for People Who Can't Speak, Blogging Authors, Guest Post, http://www.bloggingauthors.com/.../speaking-up-for-people..., accessed 16 April 2013.

Tuzzi A. (2009). Grammar and Lexicon in Individuals With Autism: A Quantitative Analysis of a Large Italian Corpus, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 47(5), 373-385.http://soe.syr.edu/.../2012/4/__Public_Lecture_SLIDES.pdf, Accessed 16 April 2013. (In English).

Wilkens, John, 'Nothings need to be heard', email Interview with Diane Goddard, Peyton's Mum, U-T San Diego, 29 March 2013, http://www.utsandiego.com/.../memoir-traces-familys.../... Accessed 16 April 2013

Williams, Donna, In the Real World, Printed in Vol. 3 No.2 (Feb 1995) of The Facilitated Communication Digest [pp5-9], Reprinted at Institute on Communication & Inclusion, Syraceuse University, http://soe.syr.edu/.../2010/7/in_the_real_worldwilliams.pdf Accessed 23 April 2013

Zurcher, Ariane, More About Facilitated Communication, Emma's Hope Book, 15 February 2013, http://emmashopebook.com/.../more-about-facilitated.../ Accessed 22 April 2013

Zurcher, Ariane, Is Facilitated Communication a Valid Form of Communication?, Emma's Hope Book, 16 November 2012, http://emmashopebook.com/.../is-facilitated.../ Accessed 22 April 2013

Zurcher, Ariane, An Unexpected Response and The Importance of Trust, Emma's Hope Book, 10 December 2012, http://emmashopebook.com/.../an-unexpected-response-and.../ Accessed 23 April 2013

Zurcher, Ariane, What I Wish I’d Been Made Aware of When My Daughter Was Diagnosed With Autism, Thinking Person's Guide to Autism, 8 April 2013, http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/.../what-i-wish-id... Accessed 24 April 2013 

Sharisa Joy Kochmeister et al, The Voices and Choices of Autism - An Insider View, Volume 1, Issue 1 [pp 1-121]: June, 2009, http://pekdadvocacy.com/.../TheVoicesAndChoicesOfAutism.pdf Accessed 23 April 2013

http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2012/11/interview-amy-sequenzia-on-facilitated.html

http://faithhopeloveautism.blogspot.com/2014/03/fc-full-circle.html

http://www.annemcdonaldcentre.org.au/anne-proving-i-exist