About
The contributors to this website come from varied backgrounds and experiences: we are researchers, educators, speech-language pathologists, psychologists, and parents. Many of us have been directly affected by Facilitated Communication (FC) in one way or another, either professionally or personally. Each of us has concerns about the use of FC, a scientifically discredited technique, on individuals with disabilities. Proponents of FC have failed to produce reliable evidence that backs up their claims of independent communication. In fact, controlled testing shows that it is the facilitators and not the individuals with disabilities who are controlling FC-generated messages. We believe individuals with disabilities and their families deserve to have access to evidence-based technologies and communication systems that promote independence - not dependence. Promoting FC and its variants harms the very people who we want to help by replacing their voice with that of the facilitator. We stand behind the organizations who oppose the use of FC and its variants.
The information on this site is for research and education only and should not be construed as legal or professional advice.
Contributors
Katharine Beals
Katharine Beals has a PhD in linguistics and is the mother of an autistic adult. She teaches courses on autism and on language and literacy acquisition at Drexel University, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Software tools she has created to teach syntax and pragmatics to ASD children and young adults are currently being used in three Philadelphia autism support classrooms. The author of Students with Autism and Cutting-Edge Language and Literacy Tools for Students on the Autism Spectrum, she has written and lectured extensively about language technologies for autistic individuals and about facilitated communication in autism.
Janyce Boynton
Janyce Boynton is an artist, educator, and advocate for evidence-based practices in the field of communication sciences and disorders. Her story as a (former) facilitator was featured on Frontline's “Prisoners of Silence”. To date, she is one of the few facilitators world-wide to publicly acknowledge her role in producing FC messages and speak out against its use. She left teaching to pursue her artwork but has continued to be active in educating people about the dangers of FC and other facilitator-influenced techniques. She was the recipient of the 2023 James Randi Education Foundation (JREF) award for her work in the field of skepticism.
Craig Foster
Craig Foster, Ph.D. is a social psychology professor and chair of the Psychology Department at SUNY Cortland. His research focuses primarily on scientific reasoning and the promotion of pseudoscience. He has written and presented on topics such as reality television, bogus wellness products, climate change denial, flat Earth beliefs, and facilitated communication. He published a review of Deej - a documentary that promotes FC. He is currently developing an article explaining why FC is pseudoscience.
Steve Sobel
Steve Sobel, M.D. was the medical director at Northwestern Counseling and Support Services (NCSS)- a community mental health center in St. Albans, VT, and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont, until retiring in 2022. At NCSS he worked with individuals struggling with a broad range of mental health issues including autism. He has published his concerns about the expanding presence of FC in Vermont in his Skeptic essay-“Facilitated Communication Redux-Persistence of a Discredited Technique.”
Stuart Vyse
Stuart Vyse Ph.D. is a psychologist and writer. He is the author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition (Oxford 2014) and Superstition: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2020). He has published both professional and popular articles on treatments for children with autism, and he is a contributing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine where he writes the “Behavior & Belief” column.