The video “In My
Language” is about the way Amanda Baggs, a nonverbal autistic person, sees the
world and communicates with her surroundings.
She notes that she is more involved with her environment than “we” are
via touch, sound, etc., but is viewed as less intelligent and incapable of
regular communication. While she doesn’t speak, she proves these assumptions
wrong by typing a description of her feelings regarding the way she is
perceived into a computer and allowing technology to read the words for her.
This video proves
that Amanda is very capable of both higher order thinking and clear
communication, both in her own way and “our” standard way, but she just needs
some assistive technology so that the majority can see all these abilities. This serves as a reminder for teachers to
never dismiss a student as incapable…always assume and expect that they can learn and do
rather than can’t. It simply might be
necessary to find a different route for them to show their competency, as was
done with Amanda Baggs.
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