Thank you, Barry Prizant, for your series on the nonspeaking autistic community. I have two teens/young adults, one 16 and one 20, who are nonspeaking and minimally/unreliably speaking, respectively. They use S2C and spelling-based communication, and they have undergone the full battery of neuropsych/educational testing that fully demonstrates not only their cognitive levels but their exceptional brilliance with genius-level IQs. Showing a real understanding of calculus without ever having sat for a minute in a calculus class, for example. I think your podcast really lays out the dogma, cognitive dissonance, and bias of naysayers. ASHA has no actual evidence for their position statement, and if that's a line in the sand for them, that's fine - just don't stand in the way and deny someone their human right to communication and an actual education. That’s cruel, heartless, and irreparably damaging. They are a licensing agency, not an educational authority, and they should hold no seat or have any influence at the IEP table or in a state legislature. Just as there were detractors of Braille, ASL, etc., we know in time the critical mass of spellers will prove these naysayers are on the wrong side of history. I'll never understand people who dedicate their lives and careers to helping folks communicate denying someone a voice because of their own cognitive dissonance rather than simply keeping an open mind and seeing it first-hand for themselves - just as you did Mr. Prizant so many years ago on your visit to UVA. We have science and research and evidence on our side, more of it by the day, and all spellers ask is for the naysayers to get out of their way. They've been silenced long enough.
