In May 2022, a young woman named Elizabeth Bonker walked to the podium at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, to deliver the commencement address to her graduating class. She had been unanimously chosen by her four fellow valedictorians to speak. Using a text-to-speech program, she began: "Today we celebrate our shared achievements. I know something about shared achievements because I am affected by a form of autism that doesn't allow me to speak."
Then she said, later in the same speech: "God gave you a voice. Use it. And no, the irony of a nonspeaking autistic encouraging you to use your voice is not lost on me."
The address went viral, watched by millions of people who had never before considered that a nonspeaking autistic person might be their class's top student, might have something to say worth hearing, might be a nonprofit founder, an author, and a valedictorian all at once. For many viewers, it was a first-time encounter with a specific truth that a growing community of nonspeaking autistic advocates has been trying to communicate for years: nonspeaking does not mean nothing to say.
Elizabeth Bonker is one of a growing number of nonspeaking autistic people whose visibility is genuinely reshaping public understanding of autism. Authors, TED speakers, documentary subjects, university graduates, and social media presences are collectively producing a body of nonspeaking autistic representation that did not exist a generation ago. This article covers who these advocates are, what they consistently tell the world, why the shift in representation matters, and what it means for how families, educators, and practitioners think about the estimated 25 to 30% of autistic people who use few or no words to communicate through speech.
What "Nonspeaking" Actually Means
A note on terminology is worth starting with because it matters to the community being discussed.
"Nonspeaking" is the preferred term for many autistic people who do not use speech, replacing the older term "nonverbal." The distinction is meaningful. "Verbal" refers to language of any kind, including written, typed, signed, or spoken. Many autistic people who cannot speak have rich verbal abilities in the form of writing, typing, or communicating through pictures and symbols. Calling them "nonverbal" implies an absence of language that is not accurate. Nonspeaking simply describes the specific channel (spoken speech) that is not accessible or reliable, without implying anything about the person's inner life, intelligence, or capacity for language.
Autistic advocates have been explicit about this preference for years. A 2025 paper in Autism co-authored by researchers and nonspeaking autistic advocates (Bottema-Beutel, Zisk, Zimmerman, and Yu) argued for retiring "nonverbal" and "minimally verbal" from research and clinical use altogether in favor of "nonspeaking" and "minimally speaking."
A related principle: nonspeaking does not equal low functioning. This is not a semantic point. Many nonspeaking autistic people have historically been placed in restrictive educational settings, denied literacy instruction, and treated as intellectually disabled because they could not speak, when in fact they were fully capable of learning to read, write, and think in ways their environment simply never gave them the tools to demonstrate.
An estimated 25 to 30% of autistic people are nonspeaking or minimally speaking. Historically, they have been dramatically underrepresented in autism research, autism advocacy, and public understanding of autism. Media representation of autism has been overwhelmingly White, male, and highly verbal. The nonspeaking autistic advocates emerging into public view over the past decade are shifting that pattern.
Voices Reshaping Public Understanding
The following are among the most publicly visible nonspeaking autistic advocates of the current era. Their work is worth engaging directly, not through summaries.
Elizabeth Bonker
Author of I Am in Here: The Journey of a Child with Autism Who Cannot Speak but Finds Her Voice (written with her mother Virginia Breen), Bonker graduated as one of five valedictorians at Rollins College in 2022 with a 4.0 GPA. Her commencement speech was viewed by millions and centered on the theme of communication as a foundation for dignity and service. She founded Communication 4 ALL, a nonprofit dedicated to communication access for nonspeaking people. Her family has publicly stated that she types independently.
Ido Kedar
Author of Ido in Autismland: Climbing Out of Autism's Silent Prison (2012) and the novel In Two Worlds (2018). Kedar is a nonspeaking autistic advocate who first learned to communicate through a letterboard and has since transitioned to typing on an iPad. His writing is direct, often critical of the assumptions made about nonspeaking autistic children by the professionals who work with them. He has been influential in shaping how autistic authors describe the disconnect between inner cognition and outward behavior.
Naoki Higashida
Japanese author of The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism (originally published in Japan in 2007, translated into English in 2013 by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida). The book became an international bestseller and was adapted into a 2020 documentary film that premiered at Sundance. Higashida wrote the book at age 13 using an alphabet grid. He has published several subsequent books and become one of the most widely-read nonspeaking autistic authors in the world.
Jordyn Zimmerman
Featured in the 2022 documentary This Is Not About Me and the subject of a 2024 CBS News profile. Zimmerman was assumed to be too intellectually disabled to meaningfully communicate until age 18 and was frequently restrained or secluded in school for behaviors that were actually attempts to communicate. She now serves as Board Chair of CommunicationFIRST (a nonprofit focused on communication access as a civil right), was appointed to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities in 2022, and has keynoted conferences internationally. She works at The Nora Project.
Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay
Indian-American author who began writing at age 8 using a letterboard developed by his mother Soma Mukhopadhyay. He has published multiple books of poetry, memoir, and fiction and been the subject of significant attention in autism research since the early 2000s. His work has been foundational for later nonspeaking autistic authors.
Hari Srinivasan
UC Berkeley graduate and Vanderbilt University PhD student in neuroscience, Srinivasan is a nonspeaking autistic researcher who has published extensively on neurodiversity and disability rights. He was awarded the Public Voices Fellowship on the Climate Crisis and Environmental Justice and has written for major outlets including Psychology Today and Boston Review.
This is a partial list. The full landscape of nonspeaking autistic advocates, authors, and public voices is broader, including dozens of nonspeaking authors cataloged by the Autism Books by Autistic Authors Project. The community is diverse in race, gender, geography, and communication method, and it continues to grow.
Documentary Films That Shifted Awareness
Two documentary films in particular have brought nonspeaking autistic advocacy into wider public view.
The Reason I Jump (2020), directed by Jerry Rothwell, adapts Naoki Higashida's book by following five nonspeaking autistic young people across four countries. The film premiered at Sundance, won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award, and reached general audiences in a way the book (already a bestseller) had not.
This Is Not About Me (2022) is an observational documentary following Jordyn Zimmerman's daily life and reflecting on her educational history, including the years when professionals underestimated her and treated her as unable to learn. The film has been screened at universities, disability conferences, and public events around the world.
Both films focus on nonspeaking autistic subjects who are also the source of narration and reflection. They are not films about nonspeaking autistic people made for neurotypical audiences to feel sad about; they are films made in partnership with nonspeaking autistic people to convey their perspectives.
What These Advocates Consistently Say
Across the writing, speaking, and public appearances of nonspeaking autistic advocates, several themes recur.
Presume competence. Nearly every nonspeaking autistic advocate has stated at some point that the single most important shift the world can make is to assume that nonspeaking autistic people have inner lives, thoughts, and capabilities until proven otherwise, rather than the opposite. Educational systems, medical systems, and family assumptions have historically defaulted to presuming the absence of inner life. Advocates argue for the reverse.
Communication is a civil right. Access to reliable communication (through whatever channel works for the individual) is not a luxury or a therapeutic goal. It is a civil right that determines whether a person can consent to medical care, participate in education, form friendships, or express preferences. CommunicationFIRST and other advocacy organizations frame communication access explicitly in civil rights terms.
Nonspeaking is not nonthinking. The disconnect between what a nonspeaking autistic person may look like from the outside and what is happening internally is often profound. Ido Kedar's writing has been particularly influential in describing this disconnect (a fully aware, thinking mind housed in a body that cannot always execute the movements needed to communicate). Elizabeth Bonker's mention of "neuromotor issues" preventing her from tying her shoes points to the same distinction: motor challenges, not cognitive absence.
Early access to communication changes everything. Bonker described learning to type as the intervention that "unlocked my mind from its silent cage." Zimmerman's story pivots on the moment she gained reliable communication at age 18. The recurring message is that early, sustained investment in communication access is transformative in ways that later intervention often cannot fully repair.
Behavior is communication. Zimmerman's experience of being restrained and secluded for attempting to communicate through behavior is a common thread in the community. The recommendation from many advocates is that when a nonspeaking autistic person behaves in a way that seems difficult, the first question should be "what are they trying to communicate?" rather than "how do we stop this behavior?"
Respect self-determination. Many advocates emphasize that decisions about communication method, education, therapy, and daily life should center the nonspeaking person's own preferences whenever possible, even when preferences must be inferred from limited data.
A Note on Communication Methods
A responsible discussion of nonspeaking autistic advocacy has to acknowledge that not all communication methods used by nonspeaking autistic people have the same evidence base, and this is an area of ongoing scientific debate.
Well-supported methods:
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices, including speech-generating devices (SGDs) like Proloquo2Go, TouchChat, and LAMP. These have a strong evidence base and are the standard recommendation for nonspeaking autistic people.
Independent typing on computers, tablets, or specialized keyboards. When a person can type without physical support from another person, authorship is clear.
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and other picture-based methods for individuals earlier in communication development.
Sign language, for individuals whose fine motor abilities support it.
Contested methods:
Facilitated Communication (FC), in which a facilitator provides physical support to the person's hand or arm during typing, has been the subject of extensive scientific study and is not supported by mainstream evidence-based practice. Position statements from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics have identified authorship concerns.
Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) and Spelling to Communicate (S2C) are variations that involve a communication partner holding a letterboard for the person. Both are controversial in the research community, with published concerns about authorship and cueing.
This does not diminish the advocacy work of nonspeaking autistic people who use any of these methods. Many advocates transition from more supported methods to more independent ones over time (as Ido Kedar and Elizabeth Bonker have done), and some ongoing research (particularly work by Vikram Jaswal at the University of Virginia using eye-tracking studies) suggests that individual authorship may be occurring even when physical support is present. The scientific conversation is genuinely open.
The practical takeaway for families is this: investing early and heavily in evidence-based AAC gives nonspeaking children the most robust foundation. If a child later develops more independent communication (typing without support, using a letterboard without cueing), that is valuable and worth supporting. The core commitment is to communication access, not to any specific method.
Why Representation Matters
The growing visibility of nonspeaking autistic advocates matters practically, not just symbolically.
For autistic children today. A young nonspeaking autistic child growing up now has role models in a way that previous generations did not. Elizabeth Bonker, Ido Kedar, Naoki Higashida, and others have written and spoken publicly about their inner experiences, their journeys through the educational system, their frustrations and hopes. A parent trying to explain to a nine-year-old nonspeaking child what their future might hold can point to real books, real films, real people.
For parents. Parents of newly-diagnosed nonspeaking autistic children have historically been given a bleak picture by professionals who assumed limited outcomes. Meeting the work of nonspeaking autistic advocates directly (rather than through third-party summaries) reframes what is possible. Not every nonspeaking child will graduate as a college valedictorian, and no one is promising that. But the ceiling has moved.
For professionals. Educators, therapists, physicians, and speech-language pathologists who engage seriously with nonspeaking autistic voices tend to shift their default assumptions in ways that improve their practice. The historical default of "assume this child cannot until proven otherwise" is being replaced (unevenly, gradually, imperfectly) with "assume this child can, invest accordingly, and let the child show us what they can do."
For public understanding. Widespread media exposure to nonspeaking autistic voices reduces the deficit-only framing that has historically shaped how the public thinks about severe autism. It complicates the stereotype in useful ways.
How Families Can Engage
Several concrete ways families can engage with nonspeaking autistic advocacy work:
Read the books. Direct engagement with nonspeaking autistic writing is more powerful than any summary. I Am in Here by Elizabeth Bonker and Virginia Breen. Ido in Autismland and In Two Worlds by Ido Kedar. The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida. Books by Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay. The Autism Books by Autistic Authors Project maintains an updated catalog.
Watch the films. The Reason I Jump is widely available on streaming services. This Is Not About Me is often available through disability organizations, universities, and screening events.
Follow advocates online. Many nonspeaking autistic advocates maintain blogs, social media presences, or affiliations with organizations like CommunicationFIRST that publish regular updates.
Support organizations doing the work. CommunicationFIRST (communicationfirst.org), Communication 4 ALL (Elizabeth Bonker's nonprofit), and similar organizations directly support communication access for nonspeaking people.
Introduce older autistic children and teens to these voices. For an autistic child who is speaking but may know or interact with nonspeaking autistic peers, reading and watching the work of nonspeaking advocates is meaningful. For nonspeaking autistic children themselves, exposure to role models who share their experience matters.
Use the language advocates prefer. "Nonspeaking" rather than "nonverbal." "Nonspeaking autistic person" rather than "person suffering from severe autism." Terminology signals what you assume.
What Presuming Competence Looks Like in Daily Practice
The abstract principle of "presume competence" translates into specific practical choices. Some examples:
Talk to a nonspeaking autistic child the way you would talk to a speaking child their age, not the way you would talk to a much younger child
Include them in conversations about them, not just conversations directed at their caregivers
Assume they understand what is being said in their presence
Explain what is going to happen before it happens, in age-appropriate language
Ask their opinion (through whatever communication method is accessible) rather than deciding for them
Provide age-appropriate reading material, not simplified content
Include them in academic instruction alongside speaking peers whenever possible
Do not talk about them in front of them as though they cannot hear or understand
Assume their behavior communicates something meaningful, even if you cannot immediately decode it
None of these requires specialized training. They require a shift in default assumption.
How ABA Practice Is Evolving
The relationship between nonspeaking autistic advocacy and Applied Behavior Analysis has historically been strained. Some prominent nonspeaking autistic advocates, including Ido Kedar, have written critically about traditional ABA practices. This criticism is worth taking seriously, and contemporary ABA practice is evolving in response.
Elements of contemporary, autism-affirming ABA practice that align with the messages of nonspeaking autistic advocates:
Presuming competence as a default clinical assumption
Investing in communication first, including AAC assessment and implementation, before addressing other goals
Treating behavior as communication and using functional behavior assessment to understand what a person is trying to say
Prioritizing self-advocacy and self-determination in goal setting
Involving the client in their own program as much as possible
Recognizing sensory and motor challenges as legitimate features to accommodate rather than behaviors to eliminate
Coordinating with speech-language pathologists and AAC specialists rather than working in isolation
Listening to autistic voices, including nonspeaking ones, in shaping practice
This is not the whole ABA field. Practice varies enormously across providers, and criticism of some historical and current practices is warranted. But the direction of change, at least in autism-affirming practices, is toward the values that nonspeaking autistic advocates have been articulating for years.
Expert Autism Support Across the Southeast
Blossom ABA Therapy supports families across Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland with in-home and center-based ABA therapy. Our Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) approach each autistic child as a whole person with a rich inner life, and we prioritize communication access, coordination with speech-language pathologists and AAC specialists, and family collaboration on goals that center the child's own preferences whenever possible.
Our services include:
Comprehensive autism evaluations by licensed professionals
In-home ABA therapy tailored to each child's needs
Center-based programs focused on skill-building and independence
Coordination with AAC specialists and speech-language pathologists
Family coaching that centers autistic voices and self-advocacy
Parent education on presuming competence and communication access
If you are a family of a nonspeaking autistic child and you want to explore what an ABA approach that centers communication access and self-determination could look like for your child, contact our team. We are always happy to talk through what a coordinated approach could look like for your family.
Continue Learning About Autism Support
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does "nonspeaking" mean, and how is it different from "nonverbal"?
"Nonspeaking" refers to autistic people who do not use spoken speech to communicate. "Nonverbal" is an older term that implies an absence of language altogether, which is often inaccurate. Many nonspeaking autistic people communicate through typing, writing, sign language, picture systems, or AAC devices, all of which involve rich verbal ability. The autistic community, including researchers who are themselves autistic, has increasingly preferred "nonspeaking" as the more accurate and respectful term.
2. How many autistic people are nonspeaking?
Estimates suggest that 25 to 30% of autistic people are nonspeaking or minimally speaking. This is a significant portion of the autism community, but nonspeaking autistic people have been historically underrepresented in autism research, advocacy, and public understanding.
3. Who are some prominent nonspeaking autistic advocates?
Elizabeth Bonker (Rollins College valedictorian, author of I Am in Here, founder of Communication 4 ALL), Ido Kedar (author of Ido in Autismland and In Two Worlds), Naoki Higashida (author of The Reason I Jump), Jordyn Zimmerman (documentary subject of This Is Not About Me, Board Chair of CommunicationFIRST), Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay (poet and memoirist), and Hari Srinivasan (neuroscience PhD student and public writer) are among the most publicly visible. Dozens more nonspeaking autistic authors are cataloged in the Autism Books by Autistic Authors Project.
4. Does being nonspeaking mean a person has an intellectual disability?
No. Nonspeaking does not equal intellectually disabled. The assumption that nonspeaking autistic people have low cognitive ability has been repeatedly disproven by nonspeaking autistic adults who have graduated from college, published books, and become subject-matter experts in their fields. Motor and speech challenges do not indicate anything about a person's inner cognition.
5. Are all the communication methods used by nonspeaking autistic people evidence-based?
Some are, and some are contested. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices, independent typing, sign language, and picture-based systems like PECS have strong evidence bases. Facilitated Communication (FC), Rapid Prompting Method (RPM), and Spelling to Communicate (S2C) are more controversial in the research community. Ongoing research (including work at the University of Virginia) is examining these methods more carefully. Regardless of method, the fundamental point of nonspeaking self-advocacy remains: communication access is essential, and nonspeaking autistic people have rich inner lives that deserve to be heard.
6. What can families do to support a nonspeaking autistic child?
Invest early and heavily in communication access through evidence-based AAC. Presume competence in all interactions. Talk to your child the way you would talk to a speaking child their age. Include them in conversations, not just conversations about them. Assume they understand what is being said in their presence. Read and share the work of nonspeaking autistic advocates. Use the terminology the autistic community prefers ("nonspeaking" over "nonverbal"). Coordinate closely with speech-language pathologists and AAC specialists.
7. What is the "presume competence" principle?
Presuming competence is the practice of assuming a nonspeaking or minimally-speaking autistic person has inner life, thoughts, understanding, and capabilities until proven otherwise, rather than assuming the reverse. Historically, professionals and family members often defaulted to presuming the absence of understanding, which shaped educational placement, medical care, and family expectations in ways that limited outcomes. Nonspeaking autistic advocates argue that the default should be flipped.
8. How is contemporary ABA changing in response to nonspeaking autistic advocacy?
Autism-affirming ABA practice is evolving to align more closely with the values nonspeaking autistic advocates have articulated: presuming competence, prioritizing communication access, treating behavior as communication rather than problem, centering self-advocacy and self-determination in goal-setting, coordinating with AAC specialists, and involving the autistic person in their own program to the fullest extent possible. Practice varies significantly across providers, but the direction of change is toward these values.
Sources
Elizabeth Bonker (2022) — Be the Light: Elizabeth Bonker's 2022 Commencement Address at Rollins College. https://www.rollins.edu/college-of-liberal-arts/news/elizabeth-bonker-commencement-address/
NPR — A nonspeaking valedictorian with autism gives her college's commencement speech (May 2022). https://www.npr.org/2022/05/12/1098506522/nonspeaking-valedictorian-autism-college-commencement-speech
CNN — A nonspeaking valedictorian with autism shares her voice in commencement address (May 2022). https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/13/us/autism-graduate-nonspeaking-commencement-rollins-college-cec
The 19th — Autistic activist Jordyn Zimmerman advocates for communication rights (April 2023). https://19thnews.org/2023/04/jordyn-zimmerman-nonspeaking-autistic-advocate-communication/
Stimpunks Foundation — Nonspeaking (glossary and terminology). https://stimpunks.org/glossary/nonspeaking/
Bottema-Beutel, K., Zisk, A. H., Zimmerman, J., Yu, B. (2025). Conceptualizing and describing autistic language: Moving on from 'verbal,' 'minimally verbal,' and 'nonverbal.' Autism.
CommunicationFIRST — Communication as a Civil and Human Right. https://communicationfirst.org/
Autism Books by Autistic Authors Project — Nonspeaking Autistic Authors Catalog. https://autismbooksbyautisticauthors.com/non-speaking-authors/
Syracuse University School of Education — This Is Not About Me: Film Screening and Discussion with Jordyn Zimmerman (2023). https://soe.syr.edu/?p=22068
Wikipedia — Ido Kedar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ido_Kedar
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) — Position Statements on Facilitated Communication and Rapid Prompting Method. https://www.asha.org/
University of Virginia Child Study Lab (Vikram Jaswal) — Research on Nonspeaking Autistic Communication. https://faculty.virginia.edu/childstudy/
