Neurodiverse-Affirming AAC Practice

Happy Autism Acceptance Month!

I’m going to define a few terms here, but then I’m going to refer you to people who can speak about them with much more authority than I can. Some of them are people with lived experience. They have taught me a lot, and I feel the very best thing I can do is tell you: “please go and read what they’ve said”. 

• Ableism: discrimination against individuals with disabilities. A fundamental belief that a disability makes someone “less than” others, and they must be “fixed”.

• Anti-Ableism: an active process of challenging ableist beliefs, systems, and practices. The ongoing work of dismantling systemic barriers and prejudices. 

• Neurodiversity: the idea that differences in human brains are natural, normal, and not an illness. 

• Neurodivergent: a person whose brain processes, learns, and/or functions differently than “typical”. 

• Medical model of disability: a view that disability is a personal health impairment, which focuses on how to “fix” or medically treat the individual. 

• Participation model of disability: a view that disability is the result of a mismatch between a person’s abilities and an inaccessible environment. This model focuses on accessibility through universal design (i.e. setting things up so everyone can participate). 

In my work, I am constantly engaging in anti-ableist practice by confronting systemic barriers, and by promoting participation through universal design. 

In other words:

I’m not here to change kids. I’m here to support them.

I’m also not here to be a pillar of support to a system that has never worked for everyone.

I’m here to change that system. 

What we would do at “LUVUSD”:

Simple, but critical to the success of any AAC program: Continuously learn about neurodiversity, listen to people with lived experience, and act on what they tell us.

Just one example: we'd never interpret stimming or exploring on an AAC device as a sign that a child couldn't learn to use that AAC.

Assorted Resources –

• AAC and Stimming

• Rachel Dorsey on Talking With Tech

• Emily Harvey

• Mrs. Speechie P

• Learn Play Thrive