It’s suspicious for facilitator bias when a nonspeaking autistic who spells elaborate paragraphs is somehow not able to hold down a simple job.
I’m a hardcore skeptic of facilitated spelling, in which the “communication regulation partner” holds a letter card while the speller points. The CRP is typically a parent.
This form of communication has not been shown in any study to be valid. It’s predecessor, “facilitated communication,” was rigorously debunked in the 1990s after studies consistently showed that the facilitator was the one spelling, not the autistic individual.
FC has been repackaged under several names including assisted spelling.
There’ve been several nonverbal or nonspeaking spellers making the rounds online, such as in news articles and on YouTube, in which their communication comes out advanced and sophisticated.
What contradicts this is that apparently, none of these adults are employed — even though the rich verbiage they supposedly spell out (that their assistant “translates” into spoken words) indicates a mind capable of holding down a simple part-time job.
The translations often reflect skillful word useage — yet these individuals don’t work. It really makes you wonder where those translations really come from.
After all, wouldn’t a person who can spell out complex and thoughtful sentences understand how to perform a simple job for pay?
Seems that anyone who can intellectually respond to questions and compose commentaries by pointing to letters would be more than capable of working a job that doesn’t require speech.
Where are the nonspeaking autistic job holders?
I’ve not been able to locate even one story online of a nonspeaking or minimal-speech autistic adult who has a paying job in the community.
I’m late diagnosed with autism and since then, have developed an obsession with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
This hyperfixation surfaces in multiple ways; one of them is that every day I google “autism” and hit “news.”
Periodically there’s a story of an adult with ASD who’s gainfully employed.
But not one of the employees who are ever profiled in these feel-good stories is minimally verbal, let alone completely lacking spoken language.
Instead, they’re quoted in the article — sometimes generously — even at times shown on its accompanying video speaking full sentences.
You’d think that if there were autistic adults with zero to minimal speech who were actually in the workforce, this would bust through local news and get picked up by bigger media outlets – like all the other stories of employed speaking autistic adults do.
I’ve done a deep search on finding just one, identified and featured autistic nonspeaking or nonverbal person with a job — and came up empty.
Yet it’s incredibly easy to find articles about verbal autistic people in the workforce.
This is a very intriguing phenomenon indeed. And there are plenty of jobs that don’t require talking.
This includes collecting stray items and returning them to their places at big box stores, custodial or janitorial, cafeteria work, library work, bookkeeper and warehouse.
Would anyone hire a nonspeaker?
You might be thinking maybe I can’t find any stories of a nonspeaker with a job because nobody will hire them.
That’s not believable because more and more, businesses are opening their arms to special needs employees.
Why would they deny someone just because they can’t talk if a position doesn’t require speech?
What about dyspraxia?
Dyspraxia originates in the brain and affects physical coordination and motor planning. The brain struggles to tell the body how to move smoothly, even though the intention is there.
To blame dyspraxia on why we don’t hear stories of nonspeakers in jobs is to presume that nonverbal/nonspeaking autism always comes with dyspraxia.
However, even if this were true, that wouldn’t matter, because many jobs that don’t require speech can be performed despite poor motor planning.
There are people with cerebral palsy and other motor control impairments who have jobs.
There must be some other reason why those who lack spoken language seem to be absent in the workforce.
Why isn’t this discussed more?
It stands to reason that if expressive language is minimal or non-existent in an autistic individual, BUT they’re capable of spelling out advanced and sophisticated narrative via letter cards, that they’d be able to hold down a part-time job, especially if an inclusive employer is happy to provide accommodations such as frequent breaks.
The fact that we don’t see stories of such adults in competitive employment makes it all the more easier to believe that the sophisticated prose that the parents “translate” is the manifestation of wishful thinking on the part of the parent.
The parent (who seems to be the only one able to translate) subconsciously moves the card so that the user’s finger touches the letters that the parent “thinks” they’re wanting to spell (ideomotor effect).
We also can’t rule out conscious fakery.
The Closest Search Result
Here is a link to a journal that talks about nonverbal autism and employment. It’s not fruitfully convincing due to its vague nature.
But it was the best I could come up with.
