My Communication Method is Being Questioned by ASHA. Read My Response.

wystansimons

"A person who is severely impaired never knows his hidden sources of strength until he is treated like a normal human being and encouraged to shape his own life.”— Helen Keller

An ad hoc committee of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has put forth the following position statement regarding Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) and is asking for formal adoption by its broader community of practitioners:

“It is the position of ASHA that the use of RPM is not recommended.  Furthermore, information obtained through the use of RPM should not be considered as the voice of the person with a disability.”

Link to full statement: Here

Here is my open letter to ASHA, in response:

To the Members of ASHA:

I am writing to you with regard to the recent proposed position statement certain committee members have generated toward RPM.

Although this committee has recommended against the use of RPM and stated that any communication made through spelling with this method is suspect, I ask that you read my letter anyway. You see, I am a nonspeaking 16-year old autistic guy using…

View original post 413 more words

Leave a comment