Educational Material - Video

Autism is a World

State of the Art Inc. & CNN Productions Present "Autism Is A World" a 40 minute documentary produced and directed by Gerardine Wurzburg, Academy Award winner for Educating Peter, and narrated by actress Julianna Margulies (E.R. and The Grid).

The documentary is about Sue who is autistic. She was diagnosed and treated as mentally retarded until the age of 13 when she began to communicate using a keyboard. When you meet her, she does not make eye contact. She obsessively attacks your buttons, endlessly stands at the faucet and watches water pour over her hand. Most people would not approach this person. But the documentary takes the viewer on a journey into her mind, into her world and her obsessions. Autism Is A World explores Sue's world, her writings, and the remarkable friendships she has created while in college.

Filmed in and around Whittier, CA where Sue makes her home, Autism Is A World was produced by State of the Art, Inc. and Producer/Director Gerardine Wurzburg, Co-Producer Douglas Biklen, Associate Producer Elissa Ewalt, Supervising Producer Jennifer Hyde, Executive Director Jody Gottlieb, Managing Editor Kathy Slobogin and Executive Producer Sid Bedingfield.

This video can be purchased at Amazon.com.
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My Classic Life as an Artist:

A Portrait of Larry Bissonnette

A Documentary Film (20 Minutes) produced by Douglas Biklen and Zach Rossetti and written by Larry Bissonnette.

This documentary shows a day in the life of outsider, Vermont artist Larry Bissonnette. Bissonnette reveals his wit from the very beginning of the film as he describes how he experiences autism.

Sonic sensitivity, placidity in personal relationships, l oose personal hygiene, language processing problems, primitive, plastic social skills, kooky behaviors, activities limited by obsessive routines, gastronomical choices stuck on McDonalds, rote learning habits: this is a summary of autism's daily impact on my life.

Looking back on his years of living in a closed institution for people labeled mentally retarded, he assesses this form of "apartheid" as "better for growing vegetables rather than people." He describes his entry into art as a way of "keeping busy as powerless to communicate young child." This is a documentary filled with Bissonnette's humorous but also poignant assessments of his life, including this one about labeling: "Fastening labels on people is like leasing cars with destinations determined beforehand." The documentary also reveals many examples of the complexities of expression, as Bissonnette moves back and forth from speech to typing to painting, and should therefore be of extreme interest to parents, teachers, and others who are concerned about how to support the communication of people with speech differences.

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"Inside the Edge":
A Journey to Using Speech Through Typing

A Documentary Film (18 Minutes) written and narrated by Jamie Burke

"Inside the Edge" is a documentary written and narrated by Jamie Burke, a 15-year-old high school student with autism. In this video, he tells of his personal experiences with the use of facilitated communication, developing speech, and inclusive schooling. Jamie has used FC since his pre-school days; during the past few years, he has become independent in his typing, has learned to read out loud what he has previously typed, and is increasingly able to speak meaningfully without previously typing his words. This video artfully combines images of Jamie with his narration, letting us join him on his journey.

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"Every Step of the Way":
Toward Independent Communication

This is a training videotape and documentary of individuals working toward independent typing, demonstrating their progress and sharing their thoughts on what helps them succeed. Lucy Harrison and Larry Bissonnette each demonstrate how they can now type with just a supportive hand on the shoulder; Kelvin Washington shows a strategy for finding the initial minimal level of support a person needs to type; and Sharisa Kochmeister demonstrates that it is possible to progress from hand and wrist support to typing with no physical support at all.

Every Step of the Way includes commentary from these four individuals and their facilitators as well as from the staff of the Facilitated Communication Institute. Grady Watts and Gerardine Wurzburg, producers of this tape, were editor and producer respectively of the 1992 Academy Award winning documentary, Educating Peter. (Running time: 22:41)

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Sharisa:
My Life as a Pioneer

In this video, Sharisa Kochmeister provides insights about her journey toward independent communication. Her story contains information from which professionals can learn a great dea about designing instructional practice with people with disabilities.

Having spent her childhood with labels of "pervasive developmental disorder" and "severe mental retardation" based on a tested IQ of 24 at age 4 and of 10 at the age of 12. Sharisa was placed in special education classrooms where she was not challenged intellectually. In this video, Sharisa talks about her inner life during this time.

The video, completed in August of 1999, is informative and useful for FC users, candidates for FC, families, professionals and pre-professionals. (Running time: 16:42)

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Under Controlled Conditions:
Validating Facilitated Communication

This videotape is a documentary of a research project in which individuals who use facilitation to communicate worked on validating their communication abilities by playing computer games in a "blind condition" (i.e. with the facilitator unable to see the computer screen.) The video features four people from among the nine who participated in the study, with video footage from the study itself. The researcher for this study, Marj Olney, describes the conditions and factors that were associated with individuals' success in the "facilitator blind" condition. (Running time: 25:16)

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"We Have a Lot to Offer":
An Introduction to Facilitated Communication

This overview includes inter­view foot­age of Austra­lian educa­tor Rose­mary Cross­ley and Ame­rican educa­tor Douglas Biklen, as well as the thoughts of parents, teachers, and individu­als who use facili­tated commu­nication. The video in­cludes background on the meth­od, a rationale for why some peo­ple with disabili­ties are helped by this ap­proach, suggestions for which indi­viduals may find it use­ful, information on how to deter­mine that the method is work­ing, and a discussion of how to confirm that the words typed are those of the individual with the com­muni­cation dis­ability. (Running time: 14:26)

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"A Part of Our Life":
Facilitated Communication With Pre-School Age Children

Filmed primarily at the Jowonio School in Syracuse New York, this video describes how to introduce facilitation to young children with various devel­opmental disabilities. The classroom scenes all include children with and without disabili­ties. The video pro­vides portraits of five children who use facilitated communication to express their thoughts and feelings. (Running time: 23:53)

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Facilitated Communication in the School Years

Filmed in elementary, middle and high schools, this video intro­duces the method and ex­plores how students can be supported in regular classes to communicate and participate. Teachers explain how they adjust their teaching approaches to help students using facilitation to suc­ceed in their classrooms. The video shows peers, parents and siblings, as well as teachers and teaching assis­tants facilitating. A school principal discusses how administrators can support imple­mentation of facilitation in the school. (Running time: 26:20)

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"A New Beginning":
Facilitated Communication for Adults

This video features three adults, provid­ing por­traits of how they use facilitation in their daily lives in the community. The video briefly explains how to get started with facilitation, in­cluding some hints at working on indepen­dent typing, and how to sup­port people using facilitation in differ­ent community settings. The title of this video, "A New Begin­ning," is how one of the three people featured de­scribes the meaning of facilitation for her. (Running time: 22:01)

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Facilitated Communication with Family and Friends

This tape is based on the experi­ences of several families and friends. It describes how they got started, how they contin­ue using facilitation, and the changes it has brought. It focus­es on the impact of facili­tation on family relation­ships and the oppor­tunities it provides for developing deeper person­al friendships. Families describe how facilitated communi­cation can cause roles to be rede­fined, rou­tines to change, and inclu­sion to be broad­ened. The tape shows how facilitat­ed com­munication can be a crucial ele­ment in people gaining greater self determination. (Running time: 22:10)

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Getting Started with Facilitated Communication

Video by Annegret Schubert

This videotape describes the details of the getting started process, including discussion of candidacy, facilitator attitude, materials and equipment, and the components involved in a first session. Several first sessions are excerpted, showing a child, a teenager, a person with challeng­ing behavior, and a child with significant but not fully functional speech. Each segment points to some of the important specifics focussed on as they apply to the getting started process. (Running time: 14:20)

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Publications:

Borthwick, C., Morton, M., Biklen, D., & Crossley, R. (1992). Severe Communication Impairment, Facilitated Communication, and Disclosures of Abuse. Procedural recommendations for situations in which disclosures of abuse have taken place.

Crossley, R., et al. (1992). Getting the Message. 66pp. This is a collection of practical papers about aspects of communication without speech, including choice-making, alphabet and word displays, indexed and coded systems, word-finding problems, communication books and boards, etc.

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