Early this year, I was thrilled to be invited to do a presentation for The Nora Project. Their mission is to teach empathy by sparking friendships between students and their peers with disabilities. They usually run this particular training live over the summer but this year their program went virtual due to COVID-19. I have included a link to the video I provided them about Presumed Competence. It is 9 minutes long and has some good video of me using a letterboard to actually write my presentation which I “voiced” as narration using my iPad, so I encourage you to watch the whole thing.
The video goes into more detail, but Presumed Competence means to assume an autistic person has the capacity to think, learn, and understand.
Mitchell's Life with Autism 
[…] is where presuming competence comes in. Educators have to believe we are capable of more than kindergarten level work. You are […]
LikeLike
Hey Mitchell!
This is such a great presentation and it was so interesting to hear about your communication journey and all the work you put in to develop your letter board skills so that you’re now working on translating them to the iPad. I never really thought about the sensitivity of the screen, and how it would make typing such a challenge when you’re working so hard on your motor skills. Thanks for teaching me something so important!
I’m looking forward to getting to know each other and maybe working together on some advocacy in the future!
Kate (NeuroClastic illustrator)
LikeLike