Birger Sellin - Facilitated Communication

Facilitated Communication

This supported form of typed communication had been already used for years by some people in the Cerebral Palsy population with severely impaired speech, but was considered invalid when used by functionally non-verbal people with autism on the basis that functionally non-verbal people in the autistic population were generally assumed to be mentally retarded, so profound writings by such people were considered impossible. Since the more recent publication of works by other functionally non-verbal authors with autism who progressed from facilitated communication to independent typing, the technique is beginning to be more widely accepted for this group. In this sense, Birger was a pioneer who braved the publication of his typed communication and in doing so paved the way for later functionally non-verbal authors with autism worldwide.