Reasonable People Interview Wrap-Up and News

I listened to Ralph Savarese's interview yesterday on the Diane Rehm Show, which, if you missed it, you can listen to here. I thought it was good, of course, which is no surprise, given that I liked the book so much.

One of the more interesting things I thought that came up, though, was the first listener question to make it on the air. It was a question emailed in, in which the listener asked Savarese to talk some more about the computer his son uses to communicate, because she was under the impression such devices had been widely discredited. Savarese quickly moved to point out the differences between augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices and the technique of Facilitated Communication (FC), noting of course that it is only the latter technique that was discredited, and in his estimation mostly due to its misuse, rather than for complete lack of efficacy. He goes into a bit more detail about the history of FC, the more recent research on it, and how his son uses it in his response, which I encourage you to listen to.

The thing that struck me, though, was this apparent public perception that AAC is 1) the same as FC, and 2) also discredited. I hope this isn't actually a widely held opinion. It is already hard enough for nonverbal individuals to be treated equally, a point that DJ makes eloquently in his final chapter of the book. How will they have a chance at being heard if people assume anyone using a computer to speak is a fraud? There is no doubt a huge amount more that could be said about the need for greater acceptance for the use of alternative forms of communication, but I'll just leave it here with the hope that this gives other people, as it did me, a great deal to think about.

In other Reasonable People news, Ralph Savarese will be signing his book at McIntyre's Fine Books in Fearrington Village this Saturday, June 30, at 11am, so if you live in the NC Triangle region, mark your calendars.