Spellers & Allies
In June 2020, following the death of George Floyd, we felt it was important to say something in support of the Black Lives Matters movement. We created a script and video collaboratively to express our support. Please share this widely for us. Change in attitude is required to bring everyone together to fight against injustice towards Black communities. BLM Video
The Black Lives Matter organization is actively spearheading the fight for racial parity.
The Autistic People of Color Fund works to empower autistic people of color.
Autistic Black Students Matter Scholarship at Hirsch Academy
The Innocence Project works to liberate wrongly convicted individuals and fight for criminal justice reform.
Consider signing the Petition for Justice for Matthew Rushin:
Black Lives Matter:
Black & Nonspeaking Reflection by Ben McGann:
Police Brutality and Disability/Neurodiversity:
We know that true accessibility requires more acceptance and awareness in our communities at large and that young people are a strong voice in advocacy. I-ASC wishes to create a network of passionate and informed young people (ages 18-30) working to make acceptance and awareness a reality.
The I-ASC Spellers & Allies Advocacy Network is a group of spellers and allies between the ages of 18- 30 who advocate together around issues that concern nonspeaking people, such as agency, autonomy, and access. Through public education and advocacy campaigns, we seek to make real change for all nonspeaking people.
The purpose of our code is to create a leadership alliance between spellers and allies that follows principles of solidarity. Culture Code Our group members agree to follow and honor these values. How to be an Ally
I-ASC initiated the Spellers & Allies Advocacy Network because we knew that we needed to build the I-ASC movement on relationships. We wanted all speaking allies to have a chance to have a conversation with a nonspeaker so that they knew who nonspeakers are and why this advocacy is so important. This is one of the ways that we make “nothing for us without us” a true tenet of I-ASC and our advocacy work. Unfortunately, in-depth conversations between nonspeaking people and speaking people of the same age group rarely happen. We want to work to change this. Here is a snapshot of these first conversations. Now you can get to know the members of the Spellers & Allies Advocacy Network and so that you can imagine a different world with us.
Since group members are located all across the world, our best way to communicate is via online meetings. We typically meet once or twice a month, depending on the need and on-going advocacy project. Our meetings take place on weekends. Once you sign up (see bottom of this page), you will receive email more information from us and notices for meetings.
Calling All Nonspeaking Advocates and Allies! The Spellers & Allies Advocacy Network are inviting all nonspeaking, minimally speaking, and unreliably speaking adults (18+) to join us! That’s right, our age limit is no more! Join our movement now by emailing spellers-allies@i-asc.org or visit our webpage at www.i-asc.org/spellers-allies.
Learn more about our network and important information before getting involved in our Orientation Handbook.
Presume competence means to never underestimate the abilities of a nonspeaker by visualizing them as having an intellect. During the initial meetings and conversations in Spellers & Allies, spelling members repeatedly brought up how important presuming competence was to them and how they felt that people all around them continue not to presume competence. For this reason, we decided to launch an online meme campaign about presuming competence. Check out I-ASC’s social media pages Facebook and Instagram to share and like our memes. Do you have an idea for a meme? We would love to hear from you!
