April is Autism Acceptance Month. Over the last 20 years, Autistic activists have gradually moved the needle from simple “awareness” to genuine acceptance. It has been a hard fought battle, and one that is still not over. The rallying cry behind the Autism Acceptance Movement is “presume competence.” That means that even when you’re talking to someone who can’t speak back to you, you should assume that they can understand you.

That’s a lesson that Zachary native Jaime Farmer learned the hard way. Her son Kell does not speak. As the years went by, he became more and more frustrated. He spent his days in school doing work far below his grade level and at home he spent much of his time watching movies that seemed to calm him. Still, his agitation grew to the point where his doctors recommended strong medications to control his more difficult behaviors.

Not wanting to subject him to the potential side effects, his family looked for alternatives - eventually settling in Colorado in their search for the best environment for Kell. It was there that they discovered the technology, Spelling to Communicate, that would change their lives. Spelling to Communicate (S2C™) “empowers nonspeakers to overcome communication barriers posed by traditional oral communication by pointing to letters on a board as an alternative means of communication.”The first day that Kell was evaluated for the program, Jaime noticed something immediately: The therapist was talking to Kell instead of at him. “He was the first person to ever talk to Kell like he was a normal 15-year-old boy,” Jaime explains, “and I include myself in that, sadly.”