communication.
education.
empowerment.

Reach Every Voice is a practice of educators with decades of experience working with nonspeaking and minimally speaking autistic learners. Many of our staff are state-certified teachers. We provide direct instruction to teach individuals who are nonspeaking or have unreliable verbal abilities to express themselves with alternative communication. We also work with families and schools to help them collaboratively find ways to meet the needs of these students in their home and school learning environments.

meet our team

Looking for our Accessible Academics Course?

find it here.

autism communication supports

we can help.

An estimated 40 percent of autistic individuals

do not use spoken language reliably.

Our teachers have decades of experience providing real education to students with complex communication needs.

learn more

California Lutheran University Autism and Communication Center

Reach Every Voice collaborates with

praise from our families

What's in the REV Blog?

Lessons in Understanding: How My Autistic Students Made Me a Better Teacher

Anne Butler

Nov 263 min read

Lessons in Understanding: How My Autistic Students Made Me a Better Teacher

Discover how listening to nonspeakers transformed a teacher's perspective. Learn about the power of listening, understanding, and embracing

My Words are My Voice: Words from the Nonspeaking Autism Community

Miranda Cobo

Nov 42 min read

My Words are My Voice: Words from the Nonspeaking Autism Community

Explore the podcast "My Words Are My Voice," showcasing writings from nonspeaking individuals in the autism community. Listen and learn!

A Years-Long Journey to Text-Based Communication

Nick Barry

Oct 292 min read

A Years-Long Journey to Text-Based Communication

Nick shares his journey of the shift from relying on scripted speech to expressing genuine thoughts and feelings using text-based communicat

No More Silent Allies: Building Inclusive School Communities

Lisa Mihalich Quinn

Oct 96 min read

No More Silent Allies: Building Inclusive School Communities

Building inclusive schools is everyone's responsibility, especially those of us with nondisabled children.

Stay Social with REV

We just wrapped up our presentation Creating Student Designed Spaces for Nonspeaking and Minimally Speaking Learners at #2024TASH.

A Reach Every Voice, we not only use inclusive practices with our students, we also try to model them in our programming at conferences. As we planned our presentation, Nick prepared his portions to allow himself to leave the room for the middle portion as a regulation support.

He introduced his work on the survey he designed and the data he collected with it, and then planned to let the rest of the team take over the middle part of the presentation so he could leave, regulate his body and emotions, and return to be a part of the panel for the Q&A at the end.

We checked in on this multiple times, including right before the presentation began when he told us he thought he wanted to step out into the hall.

Because we know things change from moment to moment with regulation, we checked in again during the presentation.

In this clip from our presentation, you’ll see Lisa check in with Nick and he lets her know he wants to stay.

Nick changed his mind, advocated for himself, and our team honored his wishes. He self-regulated with minimal supports from our team to be a part of our hour-long presentation.

We can’t wait to share more of this presentation in the near future with you all.

#PresumeCompetence #Advocacy #UniversalDesign #InclusiveEducation #CommunicationAccess #NonSpeakingDoesNotEqualNonThinking #Autism

We need to let go of the image of an ideal learner being someone who is seated, holding their body still, and quietly looking at the teacher.

Too often we hear teachers say, "We have to get behavior under control first." And as a result, we're restricting the opportunities we provide that student.

Students don't need to "look like" they're listening in order to learn.

Sitting at a desk should not be a prerequisite for access to education.

image id: a teal and blue background with a white post it paper clipped in the middle. The words on the post-it say, "Reminder: Students don't need to Students don't need to "look like" they're listening in order to learn. Sitting at a desk should not be a prerequisite for access to education."

#presumecompetence
#accesstoeducation
#rethinkautism
#autismeducation

Most schools haven’t done the large-scale overhauls that truly incorporate universal design at a deep level and remove the barriers to inclusion, which are the reason we end up providing so many intensive (and expensive) individualized supports.

What if we designed school systems that planned for disability as a natural part of our communities from our learners' earliest days?

Ethan asks,

"Do the people who design school systems stop to think about how big the disability community will grow to be?

Anyone can become disabled at any time.

Wouldn't it make sense to design systems that include authentic disability representation from our earliest years?"

[id: a blue and white graphic with Ethan's words. His picture, a smiling young man with dark hair, is in a circle to the bottom right of his words.]

#PresumeCompetence #UniversalDesign #Inclusion #Accessibility #DisabilityCommunity #InclusiveEducation #UDL

This year, we’re excited to continue the work of Reach Every Voice to help nonspeaking people gain the tools, confidence, and support they need to make their voices heard.

REV AccessAbility, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, strives to provide access to more training, coaching, and practice opportunities for those who support nonspeaking and minimally speaking students. We are committed to making these opportunities more accessible and affordable for all stakeholders.

Your gift today can make a real difference, and will help us -

* Create new training programs for our amazing instructors
* Expand accessibility of our programming to Spanish speaking and other underserved communities
* Provide scholarships to teachers, parents and caregivers so that they in turn can better support their non-speaking loved ones
* Increase training and coaching opportunities for new communication partners

No gift is too small—every bit helps us change lives.

Want to help us reach more voices?

Make a donation today via our Instagram or Facebook fundraisers!
#presumecompetence #communicationaccess #nonspeakingdoesnotequalnonthinking #nonspeakingautism
#inclusiveeducation

Gordy is a young adult whose speech is unreliable. We have other students who describe their speech as “reliably annoying.”

Our students who call their speech unreliable tell us with their AAC that they often request things they don’t really want with their speech.

They might use “mouth words” impulsively or compulsively as a part of a coping mechanism they’ve developed before having access to reliable communication.

There have been a lot of questions / comments in different groups asking if text-based communication (spelling, pointing, typing) is really a good option if individuals use their natural speech in ways others perceive as “functional.”

People also tend to defer to listening to a student’s speech, even when they have expressed that it isn’t always communicating what they intend to communicate.

We’ve seen this extend into schools where, despite listed accommodations and supports in an IEP, teachers and paraeducators aren’t providing access to AAC and instead are only relying on spoken language to assess knowledge.

We’ve heard: “no one uses this out in the world, so they should just use what people will listen to.”

Sheesh.

Comments like these remind us how much work we have to do to normalize and celebrate the use of Augmentative Communication in our world.

Communication access is a right and we need to honor each individual’s preferred methods of communication.

#AugmentativeAndAlternativeCommunication #AAC #NonspeakingAutism #MinimallySpeaking #UnreliableSpeech #CommunicationMatters #CommunicationIsAHumanRight #CommunicationAccess #PresumeCompetence #ListenToNonspeakers
#Autonomy

Lesson planning can be time consuming and frustrating.

The REV team is here to support your skill development and communication practice.

Each lesson we write provides information broken into manageable chunks paired with a photograph or illustration and multiple levels of questions:

📕choices
📗predictable responses (fill-in-the-blanks)
📘a limited range of responses
📙open-ended questions.

We have almost 300 lessons and even offer some en español!

Check out the link in our bio to visit our Lesson Library.

#presumecompetence
#nonspeakingdoesnotequalnonthinking
#spellers

How many reels do you watch that have no spoken communication in them?

It’s a lot, right?

The takeaway from that is that ideas, thoughts, and intelligence, can be shown through non-spoken communication.

So why do so many schools require students to speak in order to provide them access to meaningful education?

Why is speech a prerequisite for presuming competence?

Using some form of augmentative communication allows people to say more than what their mouths can produce.

Let’s stop privileging speech, and honor all communication.

#presumecompetence
#26lettersinfinitepossibilities
#nonspeakingdoesnotequalnonthinking
#spellers
#communicationaccess
#aac
#inclusiveeducation

🦃 We're grateful for you! Give your communication practice a boost this Black Friday by stocking up on REV Lessons!
Use Code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout to get 50% off your lesson order of $10 or more. Valid through Sunday, 12/1

www.reacheveryvoice.org/lesson-library

ID: Teal Background with white text that says "Black Friday Lesson Sale 50% off lesson orders of $10 or more use code blackfriday"

#presumecompetence #inclusiveeducation #multimodalcommunication #augmentativeandalternativecommunication #nonspeakingdoesnotequalnonthinking #autism

get questions quite a bit about why don’t we offer more videos of students who are in the very early learning stages of using text-based multimodal AAC and why don’t we offer more videos showing how we support really dysregulated students.

While they’re different questions, they both relate back to the idea of consent, which, if you’ve been following along with us this week, you know has been a hot topic at REV.

We can share more about professional opinions on this topic at a different time; however, we always try to center our students’ voices, so we’re going to share what they have to say on this topic and hope it sparks conversations.

“Don’t film anyone without consent and definitely don’t film someone who can’t yet give consent. Everyone deserves the right to privacy. I find it hard to watch videos of kids having meltdowns. If that were your worst moment, would you want it shared online?”

“Filming for me is triggering so if we need to do it, I need to be asked in advance and then not be told it’s happening in the moment. Then I want to see the video and approve it and also who can see it.”

“I must know filming is happening.”

“I need to be prepared for this and in agreement.”

#NonspeakingDoesNotEqualNonThinking #Autonomy #RightToPrivacy #SocialMedia #NonspeakingAutism #Consent

Many well-meaning people (family, teachers, behaviorists) completely misunderstand the behaviors of autistic individuals, and it often leads to people giving up.

Challenging behaviors are often seen as volitional defiance ("he refuses to sit," "she won't do what I asked") and can lead to teachers or parents saying, "That's it. I'm done. If they don't want to do it, we're not doing it."

It sometimes pushes people to the opposite extreme - the power struggle, the "we're going to sit here until you do this!" or the idea that you have to just finish the thing you said you were going to do (a page, three math problems).

Instead of continuing with our agenda or giving up, we - as parents, teachers, and communication partners - need to listen to and respect feelings of anxiety and dysregulation.

Certain "behaviors" are actually coping responses. In her book, Beyond Behaviors, Mona Delahooke writes, "we fail to recognize that many behaviors represent the body response to stress." They're ways of compensating for and dealing with a body that experiences sensory and motor differences.

We need to remember that our students don't want to give us a hard time, they're HAVING a hard time.

image ID: a two-tone teal graphic of a speech bubble. The words printed on top say, "We need to stop assuming that we know the real motivations behind the individual actions of people who don't have a reliable way to communicate.

@monadelahooke
#presumecompetence
#coregulationbeforeregulation
#regulation
#strengthsbasedapproach
#beyondbehaviors
#communicationaccess

Training communication support partners is an enormous expense for families and agencies.

REV AccessAbility strives to provide access to more training, coaching, and practice opportunities and to work to make these more affordable for all stakeholders.

When Miranda’s brother Richie first started sharing his thoughts by spelling, she was so thrilled. She started taking pictures of the amazing words spilling out of his fingers and sharing them on her social media. Who wouldn’t want to tell the world the brilliant things their previously silent brother was now sharing?

Miranda reflects now that without Richie’s consent, she should never have shared his words.

So often, as educators and family members, we’re eager to share the amazing things our long-silenced students share when they begin communicating, but we don’t always stop to ask who the messages are intended for and if it’s our job to share them.

This topic has been on the minds of many of our students as we come up to the holidays, and eager family gathers around, sometimes hovering as students spell out things, one letter at a time.

We want to remind folks that not all messages are for public consumption. Looking over someone’s shoulder while they type is largely akin to eavesdropping.

We wanted to know what our students had to say in regard to sharing what they communicate by spelling / pointing / typing, and here’s what they consented to share with you all:

“It’s always my preference that you ask if you have my permission to share.”

“I see times when with consent sharing my words is so powerful. I can understand why people want to share them more often, but that should really be my choice. Definitely find I’ll share more with people who keep their word in regard to sharing or not.”

“These are my thoughts that are specific to certain situations.”

“Keep asking for my permission to share. Respect my agency and autonomy.”

#NonspeakingDoesNotEqualNonThinking #Autonomy #RightToPrivacy #SocialMedia #NonspeakingAutism

Our words matter. At REV, we always ask our students what language they prefer we use or not use to describe them and speak to them.

Here's what our student Nick prefers. Maybe some of it will resonate with you and your students.

Nick's Tips: advice from a nonspeaking guy

Words and Phrases to Avoid

1: Nonverbal. For many students, speaking is not their most preferred form of voicing their thoughts but given a spelling tool, they share very verbal ideas.

2: low functioning. These words only hurt. And they don't really tell us anything, do they?

3: friend, buddy, kiddo. These may be fine with young people, but teenagers and young adults probably get annoyed.

4: special needs, specially abled. Pretty much any words that dance around "autistic" or "disabled." These words make it seem like it's not ok to be disabled. And it is ok. I'm proud of who I am. Against the world's stereotypes, I show how smart a nonspeaking autistic guy can be.

[id: 6 melon-colored slides that include the four words/phrases shared above as well as a cover that reads, "Nick's Tips: advice from a nonspeaking autistic guy. 4 words & phrases to avoid" and a closing slide reminding folks to engage with this post to increase the reach of Nick's words.]

#nickstips #autonomy #everyonebelongs #autistic #nonspeakingautistics #nonspeakers #ReachEveryVoice #autismadvocacy #nonspeakingdoesntequalnonthinking #rethtinkautism #PresumeCompetence #teachers #inclusiveeducator #specialed #spellers

Social media has been a hot topic among the nonspeaking young adult learners at REV recently, specifically in regard to what parents & caregivers are posting about them and how consent is or is not given for them.

We believe in listening to and learning from our students on these topics - here’s what some of them have to share. We hope their responses spark discussions in your own household about what it looks like as you share - or not - on your own social media accounts.

“I appreciate your respect and including me in conversation.”

“I don’t want anything about me to be posted if I don’t approve it. I don’t get to access social media that often and it’s sort of upsetting to log in and see photos of me and posts about me that I’m clueless about. It’s a bit like finding out people are talking about me behind my back.”

“I also hate seeing posts where I’m being called an inspiration for doing something people do on the regular. I’m inspiring, but not for that.”

“Please include me in this conversation.”

“I always expect to know what is on the socials about me. I have a right to privacy.”

“If I choose to post something it should be my absolute decision.”

“Some people share intimate or embarrassing stories about their disabled kids and I wonder what those kids would say if they knew. I’m always aware attention comes in many forms and using your kid for likes seems exploitative.”

“I’m so glad someone is asking us for our insights.”

“If I want something shared I will tell you or post it myself.”

#NonspeakingDoesNotEqualNonThinking #Autonomy #RightToPrivacy #SocialMedia #NonspeakingAutism

We love that you're here for it.

Learning from nonspeakers.

Sharing their words.

Thank you to our amazing students for offering their words and to our amazing community for engaging, commenting, and sharing so that we can continue our mission to change the world's perceptions of autism and what it means to be nonspeaking.

Here is our student Bradley's AMPLIFY acrostic poem.

Ask me anything.
Maybe your assumptions will change.
People will learn soon enough
Listening, talking, and learning.
If you dare
Find time to understand.
Your mind will soon grow.

#PresumeCompetence #RethinkAutism #NonspeakingDoesNotEqualNonthinking #Spellers #CommunicationIsAHumanRight #AutisticPoet

[id: a photo of Bradley in the pool with his eyes mostly closed, head tipped back, smiling up in the half-sun, half-shade. The words from his AMPLIFY acrostic poem are printed on the photograph]

Imagine sitting in your IEP meeting, advocating for yourself with your school team, and then hearing that the district says the board you use to communicate is not considered an AAC device...

Just to clarify, AAC means Augmentative and Alternative Communication device.

ASHA, the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, the organization who is actually behind the reason why your school won't recognize your letterboard, has this on their webpage.

"AAC means all of the ways that someone communicates besides talking."

So... pointing to letters on a board instead of speaking. How is that not AAC?

Here are a few thoughts from the U.S. Department of Justice & Department of Education related to that.

The information in the four slides pictured is from the FAQ on Effective Communication for Students with Hearing, Vision, or Speech Disabilities in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools. Our image descriptions are far too long for this post, so we'll add them in captions / comments.

You can find the full PDF version here. Image descriptions will address relevant portions that are included in the screenshot.

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/dcl-faqs-effective-communication-201411.pdf

#specialeducation #specialedlaw #advocacy #presumecompetence #communicationaccess #communicationisahumanright #spellers

We're delighted to share Brock's poem today!

Please help us AMPLIFY Brock's words and share them with your friends.

Always listen
Mind our brains
Please understand
Learning
Is
Freeing
You can do it!

#PresumeCompetence #LearningIsFreeing #AutisticPoetsofInsta #NonspeakingDoesNotEqualNonthinking #AmplifyAutisticVoices

[a photo of Brock wearing a Superman shirt. The words of his AMPLIFY acrostic are printed on the image.]

Have you met Ingrid?

As a Program Director at REV, Ingrid mentors interns, helping them develop essential skills and gain hands-on experience. She coordinates online classes for students and has contributed to the expansion of REV Institute programs addressing participants' interests. Additionally, Ingrid conducts online consultations, enhancing accessibility and support for clients and their families.

Want to learn more about our bilingual maestra increíble?

Read more on Ingrid's page on our website!
https://www.reacheveryvoice.org/ingrid-ventura-ellis

#ReachEveryVoice #NonSpeakingDoesNotEqualNonThinking #PresumeCompetence

[id: a teal background with a polaroid-like image of Ingrid, a woman with long dark hair in a yellow polka dot blouse. the text on the image reads, "Who's teaching at REV? Meet our teachers. Ingrid Ventura Ellis. Program Director. Communication Teacher]

We asked our student Leah how communication with spelling feels to her as the framework for creating this acrostic poem.

Here's her response:

Autism
Meaningful
Playful
Lovely
Incredible
Fabulous
You hear my voice.

Thanks for sharing your words with us, Leah!

#NonSpeakingDoesNotEqualNonThinking #PresumeCompetence #CommunicationAccess

[a photo of Leah holding a pencil and poking a letter on a stencil held by her communication partner. The words to her acrostic AMPLIFY poem are printed on top of the image.]

Autistic voices must be heard!

The first line of Casey's acrostic poem says it all. We're proud to continue to amplify our students' words. We invite you to share these posts to help us broaden their reach.

Autistic voices must be heard.
My life has changed with a pencil and stencils.
Please know I need this community to survive.
Learning happens when you open your ears.
I am ready for big changes.
Finding myself through spelling.
You have the ability to accept.

Casey
REV Student

#NonSpeakingDoesNotEqualNonThinking #PresumeCompetence #ActuallyAutistic #Poetry

[id: a photo of Casey, a young person with glasses, short dark hair, and a deep blue shirt on a sunny day with clear blue skies at the beach. Casey is standing where the waves meet the shore, turning to smile at the camera. The words from Casey's acrostic poem are printed on the image.]

Let's talk about a commonly used phrase that describes autistic and other people who don’t use much natural speech.

How many of you routinely hear or even use the words “non-verbal autism” or even “my child is nonverbal”?

These words are so commonly used that we even use it as a hashtag on instagram in order to reach more people who need to know about the possibilities for autistic students.

Did you know that nonverbal is literally defined as “not involving or using words?"

So many students we work with express themselves eloquently, often using words we've got to go look up.

So why does the world call them nonverbal? They’re using words.

Students who use AAC devices are frequently called “nonverbal communicators” when the better term might really be “nonspeaking” or “minimally speaking.”

While we have made the switch from nonverbal to nonspeaking our default at REV, we still ALWAYS defer to the preference of each student.

Want to hear their own thoughts about this issue? Check out this compilation of nonspeakers' words that our friends at NeuroClastic put together:
https://neuroclastic.com/on-using-nonspeaking-minimally-speaking-or-unreliably-speaking-over-non-verbal-nonspeakers-weigh-in/

[image id: a gray background with teal and gray paint streaks. On it is a reminder pop up with the words nonspeaking doesn't equal nonverbal]

#nonspeaking #nonverbal #presumecompetence #autism #nonspeakingautism

Many of the students we support have spent years frustrated and misunderstood at school.

Without a reliable method of communication, they're unable to demonstrate their knowledge or correct the assumptions the schools make about their intelligence, their intentions, and their behavior.

All this can lead to an ever-growing distrust of schools and educators.

Which is why when a student DOES feel hope and DOES hear that a school is willing to learn to support them, it hurts even more when the school doesn't follow through.

We're in a not-so-great place in a lot of schools right now where staffing shortages combined with ever-increasing workloads are making it hard for students' to have their needs met. It's part of a much bigger systemic problem both within schools and within our culture, which most certainly doesn't value and pay teacher like they should.

And yet. Despite these challenges, students' documented, legally-mandated services aren't always being provided.

We hope our student TJ's words are a good reminder for educators and administrators that trust can be hard to earn and it's even harder to repair once broken.

Here's TJ's "AMPLIFY" poem. We hope you'll share it with those in positions to start making systemic changes.

As you
Make
Promises to autistic students
Let's remember
If you don't
Follow through
You are complicit in their mistrust of schools.

[id: a photograph of TJ in which he (at his request) "looks grumpy." The words of his AMPLIFY acrostic poem are written in the bottom left of the image.]

#presumecompetence #trust #specialeducation #teachers #schooladministrators #dobetter #nonspeakingautism #autisticstudent #nonspeakingdoesnotequalnonthinking #communicationaccess #communicationisahumanright

Ableism refers to the ways people and society discriminate against disabled people and often hold beliefs that able-bodied people are superior.

Much work in disability-related fields is based in ableist assumptions that disabled people need to be "cured" or made to look or act more typical.

Ethan's quote below reflects this idea and talks about how many disabled people buy into these belief systems of being "less than" because it's the only framework of being they've known.

We love how Ethan's challenging the notion that disabled people are the ones who need to change and instead is suggesting ways to change the way our society thinks and acts.

"I was reminded as a child again and again that people would only want to play with me if I could look and act a certain way.

What if instead we taught all kids there's more than one way to be likable?

Could we stop internalized ableism before it grows roots?"

#InternalizedAbleism #StopAbleism #PresumeCompetence #EveryoneBelongs #Inclusion #NonSpeakingDoesNotEqualNonThinking

We're so glad our friend Philip from California decided to write and share an acrostic poem with us, and we couldn't be more excited to AMPLIFY his voice!

Thank you, Philip, for letting us share your words!

Attention
Move faster
Priority
Louder
I am a peron
Future is now
You matter

[id: a photograph of Philip's iPad and keyboard displaying the text of his acrostic poem. A cutout photo of Philip wearing a bright blue shirt and yellow ear defenders while grinning is superimposed over top of this photo.]

#PresumeCompetence #Amplify #NonSpeakingDoesNotEqualNonThinking #Poetry

If you were hoping for more of Nick's Tips, you'll love these tips for respecting autonomy!

Nick shares:

As someone who needs support to do many things, I know just how frustrating it can be to find yourself taking the backseat in your own life.

Here are my suggestions for honoring autonomy.

1: Let me choose. This could be dinner or whether I am doing nothing at my downtime.

2: Hear me when I say no. If you really need me to do something I don't want to, explain why it must be done right now.

3: Try to drop judgement about the clips I stim with. I know other people think only kids should watch cartoons, but I use them to take a mental break.

4: Focus on agency instead of independence. Yes, I still need support. Yes, I deserve to direct that assistance.

[id: 6 teal slides that include the four tips shared above as well as a cover that reads, "Nick's Tips: advice from a nonspeaking autistic guy. 4 suggestions for honoring autonomy" and a closing slide reminding folks to engage with this post to increase the reach of Nick's words.]

#autonomy #agency #presumecompetence #autism #nonspeakingautism #actuallyautistic

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