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Subject: Sign the petition! Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania and the Autism Parenting Summit: Help Us Stop Harmful Disability Narratives from Being Amplified

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Friend,

I signed a petition on Action Network telling Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania and the Autism Parenting Summit to Help Us Stop Harmful Disability Narratives from Being Amplified.

More than 30 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, people in the disability community are still fighting for something basic: the right to communicate in the ways that work best for them. We’re asking you to sign this petition because the way communication is discussed shapes what families are told to try, what schools and clinicians allow, and whether people are given a real chance to express themselves. This petition was prompted by a recent New York Times opinion piece and ongoing public statements by Dr. Amy S. F. Lutz. Nonspeaking people, family members, advocates, clinicians, educators, researchers, and university-based professionals have raised serious concerns that Dr. Lutz’s rhetoric does more than question specific communication methods; it dismisses and devalues the people who use them. Dr. Lutz has repeatedly gone beyond professional disagreement. She has publicly suggested that families and communication partners are either deceptive or being deceived, and she has compared nonspeaking college graduates who communicate using letterboards or keyboards to “ventriloquist dummies.” For many people in the disability community, these statements are not simply controversial. They are shocking, dehumanizing, and deeply damaging to people who have fought for years to access communication and be recognized as thinking, capable human beings. Dr. Lutz is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. She listed her affiliation with Penn to boost her credibility. It is a major university that helps shape future educators, clinicians, and researchers, and its name carries weight in public conversations about disability, education, and access. That influence comes with responsibility for the perspectives it promotes. She is also scheduled to speak at the Autism Parenting Summit, a virtual event taking place May 15–18, 2026, that has more than 60,000 attendees registered. Families, caregivers, and professionals turn to events like this for guidance they can trust, especially when they are trying to make decisions about communication, education, and support. A platform of that size has an obligation to present disability and communication access responsibly. Across the country, nonspeaking and minimally speaking people use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), including spelling and typing, to express thoughts, make choices, build relationships, access education, and participate in daily life. Many families are elated to discover these methods after years of being told their loved one may never be able to communicate. When these communication methods are publicly labeled as “debunked” without acknowledging context, modern evidence, and lived outcomes, it creates fear and doubt. Families may hesitate to pursue communication supports, schools and providers may restrict access, and nonspeaking people are once again forced to prove their competence. This is not an abstract debate. It affects whether people are given access to communication at home, in school, in health care, and in community life. Communication access is a human right protected by federal law. Effective communication depends on the person and the context, and public platforms should reflect dignity, accuracy, and the lived experiences of nonspeaking people. We urge the University of Pennsylvania to formally review Dr. Lutz’s public statements and conduct across platforms to determine how they can uphold their commitments to disability inclusion, academic integrity, and responsible scholarship. If Penn chooses to defend her rhetoric, it risks implying that the many educators, clinicians, researchers, universities, health care providers, and public institutions that honor these methods are being misled or are knowingly part of an elaborate hoax. We also urge the Autism Parenting Summit to reconsider whether Dr. Lutz’s rhetoric reflects the values it wants to elevate. On a platform trusted by thousands of families, associating itself with messaging widely experienced as dehumanizing toward nonspeaking people could seriously undermine confidence in the summit and in the information it provides. Too many nonspeaking people have spent their lives underestimated, spoken for, or denied the tools they need to communicate. We should be expanding access, not limiting it. Sign this petition to help protect the right to communicate.

Can you join me and take action? Click here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/help-us-stop-harmful-disability-narratives-from-being-amplified?source=email&

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