Rosemary Crossley
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Rosemary Crossley AM (born 1945) is a bestselling Australian author and advocate for disability rights and facilitated communication.
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[edit] Authorship and advocacy
Rosemary Crossley is the co-author, with Anne McDonald, of Annie's Coming Out[1], the story of Anne's breakthrough to communication and her controversial release from a large Australian care home for children and adults with severe disabilities. Anne's story went on to be made into an award winning film titled Annie's Coming Out (also called A Test Of Love) in 1984 starring Angela Punch McGregor and directed by Gil Brealey, the screenplay for which was written by Rosemary's partner, Chris Borthwick, with both Rosemary and Anne as contributing writers. The film won AFI awards for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The communication technique featured in the film, facilitated communication, is today widely used by people with cerebral palsy and has despite widespread controversy become extended to many in the autistic population.
Rosemary Crossley went on to establish DEAL[2] (Dignity, Education and Learning) Communication Centre, training people in the use of communication techniques with a wide range of functionally non-verbal people.
She later wrote a second book called Speechless[3]: Facilitating Communication for People Without Voices about the experiences of several people who first acquired communication through this technique.
Rosemary Crossley has a PhD from Victoria University, Australia and is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM)
Since the mid 1990's, several functionally non-verbal autistic authors have proven their ability to progress via facilitated communication to independent typing.[1][2] Some of these individuals have authored book chapters describing their experiences in the book Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone, coauthored and edited by Douglas Biklen.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography
- The Dole Cookbook (Collingwood: Outback, 1978) ISBN 0868882194
- Annie's Coming Out (Penguin Books, 1980) ISBN 0140056882
- Facilitated Communication Training (Teachers College Press, 1994) ISBN 080773327X
- Speechless: Facilitating Communication for People Without Voices (1997) ISBN 0525941568
[edit] References
- ^ Broderick, A.A., and C. Kasa-Hendrickson (2001). "SAY JUST ONE WORD AT FIRST": The Emergence of Reliable Speech in a Student Labeled With Autism. JASH, 26(1), 13-24 (ERIC link)
- ^ Mirenda, Pat; Beukelman, David R. (1998). Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Management of Severe Communication Disorders in Children and Adults. Paul H Brookes Pub Co. ISBN 1-55766-333-5.
- ^ Biklen, Douglas, et al. "Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone" (2005), pp8-9. ISBN 78-0814799284. Introduction online at http://www.nyupress.org/webchapters/0814799272intro.pdf
