Speakers’ Bureau

The following individuals are available to speak on a variety of topics related to Facilitated Communication, autism, language acquisition and literacy, science vs. pseudoscience, and evidence-based methods and technology. Please use the contact form for more information.

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.

Available to speak online or in the mid-Atlantic (U.S.)

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”. She wrote about her experiences in an article called “Facilitated Communication: What Harm It Can Do - Confessions of a Former Facilitator” (EBCAI, 2012) and co-hosted a series of talks about FC for the About Time Project with Susan Gerbic. 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. Her articles about FC have been published in Skeptical Inquirer and Skeptic Magazine.

Available to speak online or in northern New England (U.S.)

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.

Available to speak online or in southern New England (U.S).