TRUE FAITH – THE ABCs of STARTING S2C PLAY THIS SONG WHILE YOU READ THIS BLOG Warning: My blogs from this point forward might come with background music if you don’t mind. Today, it’s TRUE FAITH by New Order, one of my favorite 80’s bands.  This is my “new beginnings” song, and it reminds me […]

A Boy Like Me, a Netflix Series and 2 podcasts A Third part to the series on Neuromedia 2021 Part 1 – Curated blogs – for core concepts in Disability Justice and Neurodiversity.   Part 2  Neuromedia  Summer 2021 Book Recommendations  We open our final installment of the three-part neuromedia 2021 campaign with a review of […]

Why do we say Nonspeaking? When I was asked to write a blog post about why those of us involved in the Spellerverse use the word “nonspeaking” instead of “nonverbal,” I immediately thought of my friend Thomas Pruyn. While, of course, I could share (and teach people regularly the reason behind this semantic choice), I […]

THE ELEPHANT IN THE NONSPEAKNG ROOM:  Listening to Emotions, Boundaries and Trauma by Noah Seback & Keri Delport So what is the elephant in the nonspeaking room? It looms so large and obvious, yet we pretend it’s not there….but there it sits, crushing the life out of nonspeakers. Let us spell it out for you […]

“Next Adventures” A story & a song by Joel Nyland For the last year, Joel has been writing songs with Brian Laidlaw, through the organization Unrestricted Interest. Last autumn Brian (who loves rock climbing) scaled a huge cliff called El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, and when he described the experience, Joel said that it […]

Got Power? by Deborah Spengler A few weeks ago, I-ASC held its Motormorphosis Virtual Picnic and I have got to say that every one of the presentations was exceptional! So much so, that one of them, “The Elephant in the Room” presented by Noah Seback and Keri Delport, inspired me to finally get around to […]

Upside Down…In A Good Way by Gregory Tino   Four years ago my life got turned upside down….in a good way.  Yes, autism and I were so happy, but it was stressful too. Yes, autism and I were anxious, but in a good way. Yes, autism and I thought life would never be the same, and it […]

INTERDEPENDENCE IS GOLD By Joel Nyland 7/29/21   “I was inspired to write this poem after I read about gymnast Simone Biles and her twisties.  It sounds like she has what I so often feel.  Proprioception can be a tricky thing.  I hope you will enjoy this poem and keep going for gold.  Thank you […]

Neuromedia Summer 2021 Book Recommendations.  A second part to the Neuromedia 2021 series. Ann Jusino, Monica Van Schaik and Lakshmi Rao Sankar    I-ASC’s July 14th blog, How We Think About Disability Matters discussed the impact of various disability paradigms on how we think, feel, and act in relation to disability. This week, we bring […]

FRIENDSHIP SUPPORT, LONG-DISTANCE by Marcus Bolande and William Tziavaras MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT HAS TO BE THE TOUGHEST TYPE OF SUPPORT TO FIND FOR NONSPEAKERS. BUT HERE’S THE GOOD NEWS: WE FIND THE MOST EFFECTIVE SUPPORT COMES FROM A SIMPLE CONNECTION BETWEEN TWO SPELLER FRIENDS.  HERE’S OUR STORY. MARCUS: If I hadn’t met my pen pal […]