This letter responds to the recent D.O. article that continues the oft-repeated and outdated attacks on the Institute on Communication and Inclusion (ICI) and the work around facilitated communication (FC). As we wrote two years ago when The D.O. last offered these ill-informed attacks, we stand with the ICI in their decades of work to provide communication and inclusion for individuals at risk of marginalization. This civil and human rights work is in line with Syracuse University and the School of Education’s mission.

People who use FC include individuals with a wide range of intellectual abilities who lack reliable pointing skills and can’t speak or whose speech is extremely limited or disordered, many of these people often labeled with intellectual disabilities. However, many individuals who once required significant physical support to communicate have demonstrated the ability to type with minimal or no physical support and/or to read aloud what they type. This country has a horrific history of mistreatment and institutionalization of persons who aren’t able to communicate, and we see that authentic communication, like FC, is a fundamental right.

By never watching or learning from those who use FC, The D.O.’s reporters and editors provided no understanding of what FC is or how it works. We want to point out the countless children, families and communities that have benefited by working with the ICI and using FC. The articles ignored young people who were initially labeled with intellectual disabilities (IQs below 70) who learned to type through FC, and went on to receive mostly As in college at places like SU.

A number of studies, using multiple methodologies, have successfully demonstrated the validity of typed communication through FC. Equally important is that the ICI’s research is held to the same research standards, involving the ethics of working with human subjects and the rigorous peer-reviewed process that all scholarly research goes through to get published.

The D.O. articles and other criticisms of FC are based on the foundation that people who type to communicate have been scientifically labeled intellectually lesser than and what they type can’t possibly be attributed to them. We must recognize this argument has a history that spans groups of people in the U.S. with “scientific” claims stating immigrants, women and African Americans are intellectually inferior. These kinds of “scientific” claims built on intellectual inferiority are offensive and wrong.

Signed,

George Theoharis, Professor

Julia White, Assistant Professor

Thomas H. Bull, Director of Field Relations

Barbara Applebaum, Professor

Beth Ferri, Professor

Charlotte Sharpe, Assistant Professor

Joanna Masingila, Dean

Scott Shablak, Director

Suzanne Oliver, Assistant Professor

Leela George, Assistant Teaching Professor

Michael Gill, Assistant Professor

Gail Ensher, Professor

Joseph Shedd, Associate Professor

James Rolling, Professor

Eunjung Kim, Assistant Professor

Mara Sapon-Shevin, Professor

Catherine Engstrom, Associate Professor

Jerry Mager, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Emeritus Professor for Teaching Excellence

Nicole Fonger, Assistant Professor

Dalia Rodriguez, Associate Professor

Stephen Kuusisto, University Professor

Ben Dotger, Professor

Melissa Luke, Dean’s Professor

Diane Lyden Murphy, Dean

Dawn Johnson, Associate Professor

Beth Myers, Research Assistant Professor

Published on March 26, 2018 at 7:39 pm