A 30-Year Journey From Skepticism to Acceptance: Reconsidering the Authenticity of Assisted Communication of Nonspeakers

• By: Barry M. Prizant, PhD, CCC-SLP College of Health Sciences, University of Rhode Island
• July 9th, 2026
• assisted communication, autism research, communication supports, facilitated communication, motor planning challenges, neurodiversity, nonspeaking autism, spelling to communicate, Summer 2026 Issue
• 144    0

My introduction to assisted communication (AC) for nonspeaking and minimally speaking individuals was in reference to facilitated communication (FC). During July of 1991 at the Autism Society of America's annual conference, I was asked to participate on a panel that was hastily organized to have an...

Why Message-Passing Tests Are Unethical

• By: Jared Hansen Parent of a Speller
• July 9th, 2026
• AAC, assisted communication, assisted typing, authorship testing, communication access, ethics, message-passing, non-speakers, RPM, S2C, spellers, spelling, spelling to communicate, Summer 2026 Issue, validation testing
• 73    0

Note: The generic term “Spelling” is used here for all methodologies of assisted communication access with spelled or typed output. The term “Spellers” is a generic label accepted by non-speakers who communicate via these methods. “Non-speaker” (preferred over “non-verbal”) includes...