Today, we're watching a documentary on a pseudo-scientific and debunked "communication" technique for non-verbal people called Facilitated Communication (FC). In this documentary, a young autistic man named David James Savarese (DJ/Deej) allegedly prepares to attend Oberlin College and achieve independence. Instead, things take several different dark turns as it becomes apparent his mom is doing all of the communication on his behalf and decreasing his quality of life significantly. Far from being an uplifting documentary on inclusion and fairness, it ends up being a cautionary tale.

The Interview:    • Deej Q+A with David "DJ" Savarese  

The Documentary: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/deej

Review from a former user of FC: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/03...

#skeptic #science #disability