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.
For many autistic students, school fire drills can be deeply upsetting. For Alex, the fear of the next one was so traumatizing that it prevented access to a free and appropriate education.
When experts say your Autistic child has low IQ and obstacles to learning, but they are curious and intelligent, ignore that number. It doesn’t define them.
However, an unforeseen side effect of the IDEA’s deficit-oriented focus upon disability has created a dilemma for parents of autistic children and has fostered a problem-oriented societal approach to autistic people in general.
Three nonspeaking autistic students advocate for communication choice rights and full participation in their own IEP and inclusion plans.
“I could tell she had no idea my son was autistic. She asked him why he wasn’t in class and …and he looked away and wouldn’t say anything else.”
One mother’s heartbreaking account of surviving domestic violence and sexual assault, custody battles with the perpetrator, court-ordered ABA therapy, and finding the spirit to keep fighting.
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