“If I am trying to make eye contact, words go out the window. They make no sense. Ditto if there’s a lot of background noise, or if I’m busily trying to type out a response on my AAC.”
Nonspeaking advocate Ben Breaux writes a letter to young autistics explaining the journey to communication.
Nonspeaking youth Rumi Ottus spells out a striking poem about the life unlocked by having access to communicate via letterboard.
As a nonspeaker, Trevor Byrd internalized the religious dogma he heard his whole life in silent dedication. As he got older, his values conflicted with his rigid observance of Catholic canon. The support he received from his mom helped him to keep his faith and be true to his values.
Hecklers from Drexel University showed up to the Penn State conference to harass the nonspeaking presenters, then they published a slanderous article claiming most presenters were not really autistic.
A list of resources for those seeking to learn more about Autism, from the inside-out.
Tejas Rao Sankar challenges schools and society to invest in the autonomy of autistic people and not to deny nonspeakers the right to participate in the IEP process.
Trevor Byrd is a teen nonspeaker who gained access to communication when he enrolled at Reach Every Voice. After seeing a young girl spelling on a letterboard, he wrote this letter to all the young spellers.
It is because of Soma Mukhopadhyay and her son, Tito, that thousands of nonspeaking and minimally speaking autistic people around with world have access to reliable communication.
Representation matters, even indirect and unintentional representation. Headcanon neurodivergent characters abound in our cultural landscape. Motorcycle Boy is damn near archetypal for me. He is an avataric poem, a song of disenfranchisement, a long epic tale of knowing yourself SO well and being known not at all.
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