This Peabody Award-winning documentary tells the story of DJ Savarese, a nonspeaking autistic young man who types to communicate. DJ graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a double major in Anthropology and Creative Writing from Oberlin College in 2017. The documentary covers DJ’s educational journey from being fully included in his local public high school in Iowa, to college in Ohio, and provides a window into his daily personal and emotional life. DJ starred in and co-directed the documentary to help promote access and inclusion for other nonspeaking individuals. It premiered on the PBS World Channel in fall 2017.

Jordyn’s Rocky Journey is a documentary about the physical and mental work undertaken by a young man with autism to control his body and increase independence. Jordyn communicates by pointing to letters on a letterboard. He calls his out-of-control body “Rocky,” and writes of his struggles and work to gain control over Rocky on his blog of the same name: https://jordynsrockyjourney.wordpress.com/.

This TEDx Talk by award-winning veteran journalist Parisa Khosravi tells the story of her son Payam developing the ability to communicate effectively with a letterboard after years of trying other augmentative and alternative communication methods with no success. Parisa discusses the power of communication and how her relationship with Payam has deepened how that he has the ability to communicate.

“Just try keeping your mouth shut for a day,” Chammi typed. “Try keeping your mouth shut while they talk about you, telling your mother to put you away in an institution. You want to scream, No, no, no, but you are mute. Fortunately, a determined mom searched the world over until she found a way that my voice could be as loud as yours.”