Facilitated Communication Offers Voices, Sparks Debates 

Tim Chan, a 29-year-old man diagnosed with autism, relies on facilitated communication (FC) to interact with others and to pursue his studies. However, experts have raised concerns about the validity of this method. 

Communicating via a text-to-voice device from his Melbourne home, Chan declares, “I was presumed incompetent and ignored.” 

A Voice for Non-Verbal People 

The notion of facilitation communication (FC) involves a trained person assisting a non-verbal individual by supporting them in pointing at letters or symbols on a keyboard to express themselves.  

For Tim Chan, his mother, Sara, serves as his facilitator. Over the past two decades, her role has evolved to just a light touch on his shoulder, a technique Chan says helps him stay focused. Despite this, experts continue to debate the validity of facilitated communication and autism.  

Despite that many advocates of this method claim that it offers disabled people a voice to speak through, many others, including experts and parent are against it, as they believe that it’s not the communicator that is controlling the conversation but the facilitator. 

Such claim has created debates, and even was inspired by a documentary of Louis Theroux, who questioned the authenticity of this method. 

Background of Facilitated Communication 

FC was first introduced in 1977 by Australian disability advocate Rosemary Crossley. For some people this method has crossed the barriers of communication, while for others it was misguided and potentially harmful. 

Ann McDonald was the first non-verbal woman with cerebral palsy to use this method and started to point at magnetic letters at the age of three, being able to write sentences within weeks. 

Surrounded by Doubts and Opposition 

Some of Crossley’s colleagues remained highly suspicious about the facilitated communication progress of Ann, who lacked an educational background. Consequently, Dennis Maginn, a psychiatrist at the institution where McDonald lived, doubted the validity of facilitated communication and demanded independent testing. 

Things took a dramatic turn when, through facilitated communication, McDonald accused Maginn of trying to suppress her. Though the investigation was later dismissed, the allegations related to facilitation in communication had already destroyed Maginn’s career. 

FC has been opposed by academics and groups that support people with disabilities, as their main concern is that many studies show that the words typed by the non-verbal person are likely those told them by their facilitators.  

“The science just isn’t there”, Howard Shane, a professor at Harvard Medical School who has testified in numerous legal cases involving facilitated communication told BBC.  

Legal Challenges 

Facilitated communication has not only been controversial in scientific circles but also in legal contexts. Many court cases have been witnessed to involve allegations of abuse apparently discovered through facilitated communication. In each case, the accusations usually of sexual abuse were determined later not to hold water due to the facilitators. 

Some, despite these setbacks, support it, citing the remarkable change the method has brought about in the lives of non-verbal individuals.  

As the debate deepens, both sides are left debating the implications of a technique that has transformed the lives of some but remains covered in controversy worldwide. 

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