Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Speechless

After watching this video, posted by a young woman, Amanda Baggs, who has been labelled by her doctors as "low-functioning austism," I'm speechless. Her explanation of the video is taken from the YouTube website:

"The first part is in my "native language," and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as much as it is a statement about what gets considered thought, intelligence, personhood, language, and communication, and what does not."




As someone who has worked for years with students who have had difficulty communicating or any other form of disability, I wonder if I have it all backwards. I won't see things the same way again.

Thoughts? Post them below.

Many thanks to Ms. Baggs for this powerful statement. Please do yourself a favor and read her blog, too. It can be found by clicking here.

(Hat tip: Rob McCausland, Clippings for PEG Access Television in a repost of Andy Carvin's original article, which can be found by clicking here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad my repost helped more people find this, but please, good people, note that it was Andy Carvin's original post, which I merely copied, and it's available at:
http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2007/02/

Thanks, y'all
~Rob McCausland

Dave Hohulin said...

Thanks, Rob. I'll update the post with the correct information. I appreciate you reposting the video and commenting here!

Dave