Research & Resources

1. Communication Alternatives in Autism, by Edlyn Pena 
2. Leaders Around Me, edited by Edlyn Pena 
3. I am in Here, by Elizabeth M. Bonker and Virginia G. Breen
4. Fall Down 7 Times Get up 8, by Naoki Higashida 
5. The Reason I Jump, by Naoki Higashida  
6. Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone, by Douglas Biklen  
7. Communication Unbound, by Douglas Biklen
8. Ido in Autismland, by Ido Kedar (RPM/typing to communicate)
9. Uniquely Human, by Barry M. Prizant (consistently regarded as the best recent book on autism by people who do facilitated communication) 
10. Real People, Regular Lives: Autism, Communication & Quality of Life, by Sally Young Phd 
11. Being Heumann, by Judith Heumann 
12. Contested Words, Contested Science,  Doug Biklen
13. May Tomorrow Be Awake, by Chris Martin 
14. Underestimated: An Autism Miracle, by JB Handley (about S2C) 

• SPELLERS (trailer)(about letterboarders who use S2C) 
• Elizabeth Bonker Channel 2 News Clip (non-speaking valedictorian, gave commencement address at her college)
• Elizabeth Bonker Channel 6 News Clip
• Elizabeth Bonker Full Commencement Address
• "Unlocked" (FL group doing Facilitated Communication (FC) - 6 min trailer) 
• iTYPE (video about the same FL group as above)
• My Voice (FC) – 56 minute film. Highly recommend this film about Facilitated Communication. It covers the history, the controversy, the skepticism and the success.  
• Trailblazers Social Typing Group from STeP – 4 minute video clip  
• Wretches and Jabberers  – trailer about Tracy Thresher and Larry Bissonnette (the full movie is available at Kanopy.com)  
• Tim Chan – At age 16 (11 minutes) 
• Annie’s Coming Out – Film based on the Rosemary Crossley, inventor of FC and Anne McDonald, her student. Wonderful film. Based on the book of the same title.
• Grant Blasko – Thoughts from an Autistic AAC User After the April 2022 Meeting of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee
• Jordyn Zimmerman “This is Not About Me” Movie  | Trailer of the film 
• Interview with Jordyn Zimmerman (36 minutes)
• Jordyn Zimmerman presenting at a BOE meeting (15 mins) 
• Listen – 5 minute video 
• Dan Bergmann from CBS Sunday Morning Oct 2021 – Non-speaker who graduated from Harvard (5 minutes)  
• Hari Srinivasan’s commencement Speech at Berkeley May 2022 (Hari’s speech is between minutes 5-8 on the video). 
• 2 UC Berkeley students make history as 1st nonspeaking autistic graduates (ABC News7 clip)
• Deej – about DJ Savarese – Trailer 
• Autism is a World – CNN presents about Sue Rubin 
• My Classic Life as an artist  
• Hear Me Now by Chammi
• Unspoken Trailer | Full film for purchase
• Crip Camp – film about the Disability Rights Movement 
• April 2019 World Autism Day – communication and technology (3 hrs)                                     
•  Matthew Cramer: An Autistic teen’s story of learning with a letterboard – PBS Philly.
•  My Letterboard life by Gregory C Tino 
• Living Our Lives Through Letters
• Jacob Rock LA Times Article | Video - Typing Independently | Interview with father

• "SLPs as AAC Gatekeepers: Reimagining, Challenging, and Pushing Our Assumptions" — Jordyn Zimmerman's presentation at the recent ASHA annual conference.
• Edlyn Pena's public comment (from minute 14:54 to 19:44) to the IACC is especially noteworthy in terms of offering support of FC, RPM and S2C.  Here is a link to all of the written public comments; Edlyn's comments are on page 14.
• Kristie Patten, Vice Dean and Professor of the Department or Occupational Therapy at NYU – Eleanor Clark Slagle Lecturer at National OT Association Conference April 1st, 2022. Her lecture is "Finding our Strength”; she appears at minute 13:00.

• Extensive collection of peer-reviewed research on typing compiled by United for Communication Choice (Jump to Section 4 for Autism-Specific Literature)
• Disabilities Study Quarterly:  The Voices of Typers: Examining the Educational Experiences of Individuals Who Use Facilitated Communication    
• Frontiers: Perspective: Presuming Autistic Communication Competence and Reframing Facilitated Communication; by Heyworth, Chan and Lawson
• Hidden Communicative Competence: Case Study Evidence Using Eye-Tracking and Video Analysis; by Grayson, Emerson, Howard-Jones, O’Neil.
• Clinical Case study using eye gaze with of one Facilitated communication user showering authorship
• Why we need to study assisted methods to teach typing to nonspeaking autistic people. Autism Research. Jaswal, V. K., Wayne, A. & Golino, H. (2020).
• Eye-tracking reveals agency in assisted autistic communication. Scientific Reports, 10, 7882.
• Torres, E. B., Travers, B. G., Delafield-Butt, J. T., & Srinivasan, A. (2025, June 18). Autism: The movement (sensing) perspective a decade later.  Frontiers of Integrative Neuroscience
• 300 pages of peer reviewed journal research articles. Autism: The Movement Perspective | Frontiers Research Topic (frontiersin.org)
• Touch may reduce cognitive load during assisted typing by individuals with development disabilities, Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience August 3, 2023, Volume 17-2023 by nicoli, Pavon, Grayson, Emerson and Mitra.
• Evidence of Authorship on Messages in Facilitated Communication: A Case Report Using Accelerometry, Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2021

Occupational Therapy/AC Research:

• Parent Perspectives on Assisted Communication and Autism Spectrum Disorder. John Damiao; Galilee Damiao; Catherine Cavaliere; Susanna Dunscomb; Kirsten Ekelund; Renee Lago; Ashley Volpe ; The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2024, Vol. 78(1), 7801205070.
• Ethnographic perspectives of unreliable, minimal, and non-speaking autism associated with apraxia. OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health. Damiao, J., Damiao, G., & Quinn, J. (Year). Advance online publication.
• Finding Our Strengths: Recognizing Professional Bias and Interrogating Systems. Kristie K. Patten, The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2022, Vol. 76(6), 7606150010.
• You Can Know Me Now If You Listen: Sensory, Motor, and Communication Issues in a Nonverbal Person With Autism (AJOT). Rachel Freret Shoener; Moya Kinnealey; Kristie P. Koenig. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2008, Vol. 62(5), 547–553.