Serving the World by Sofi Ghassaei My math teacher recently had me consider decision fatigue in a probability lesson. Sometimes one feels exhausted choosing music, food, tv shows, clothes, and books. Over time these little things add up and overwhelm. Making so many trivial choices leaves no space for the bigger questions, like decision making […]

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ADVOCACY BY: DANNY WHITTY Before I gained communication access, I felt so isolated. I had no community of my own, except for my family and some scattered friends. Not only could I not communicate, but I felt so unworthy of friends due to my disability.  And now, I have a thriving community […]

Rehumanizing Access to Communication By Alexandra Ponsica, PIT I would like to rehumanize the communication needs of a nonspeaker, since semantics seem to be the reason so many nonspeakers cannot access their basic human right to communication in school instead of what the child needs. To put it into perspective, I am a mom to […]

Independence or Autonomy? By Alexandra Ponsica One goal that is often the main focus of parents, caregivers, and instructors of individuals with special needs is achieving independence. On the surface, it sounds like a fantastic goal. As a mother of twin 10 year old nonspeakers and spellers, it is certainly something I want my children […]

Legal Capacity and the Right to Communicate By: Nicolas Joncour I would like to talk to you about people who are not considered capable of making their own choices, because their disability prevents them from having their own acceptable desires. I see that the world needs to hear from those affected. The time I take […]

    Being Held To A Higher Standard  By Gregory Tino It took me 25 years to find a way to communicate. It then took me another year to become fluent with my mother. Why does it take 5 minutes for a critic to decide that I am not capable of communicating my thoughts? For some unfathomable […]

College Bodies by: Anshil Kumar College is one of the most exciting and terrifying topics amongst the spelling community. We finally have an outlet of which we are able to display our intelligence, but we still are stuck in an impulsive body. Where is the balance between the two? What accommodations do we need to […]

Strategies for First Responders Interacting with Autistics and Nonspeakers By: Ian Nordling On a Saturday in August, and again in late October, I had the honor of presenting to a group of Fairfax County first responders. A few years ago, one of the individuals had been sent to Growing Kids Therapy Center (GKTC) to help […]

What Advocacy Means to a Late-in-Life Speller Everyone who knew me thought I was stupid because I couldn’t speak. The only things that came out of my mouth were nonsense, so I understand why people thought that. The fact is I was treated like a 4-year-old and denied an education because I was assumed to […]

Sexuality and Sex: Another Hard Conversation by Noah Seback Nonspeakers and sexuality. Nonspeakers and sex. Can these be mentioned in the same sentence?  Is this an oxymoron?  Did I read that correctly?  Yes!  I’m a nonspeaking autistic broaching the subject of sex and sexuality as it relates to our population. This topic is too rarely […]