info@shevin.org
Mayer Shevin, Ph.D.
275 Fellows Avenue
Syracuse NY 13210 USA
275 Fellows Avenue
Syracuse NY 13210 USA
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| (315) 443-5179 info@shevin.org |
Mayer Shevin, Ph.D. 275 Fellows Avenue Syracuse NY 13210 USA | |
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Articles, Stories, Poems | ||
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The Language of Us and Them |
This is a poem that says in one page most of what I know about the
power of words to oppress people. It was written in great anger
during a series of three meetings at a state institution in which twenty
people were arguing over whether a 60-year-old man, a life-long resident
of the institution nearing the end of his life, would be allowed to own a
harmonica. All of the negative statements in this poem were said
about that man during the course of those meetings. |
| Barney's
Harmonica |
The story behind the poem, "The Language of Us and
Them." | |
The Treadmill |
A cautionary story about the ways in which our professional
good intentions sometimes stand between people and their
communities. | |
Learning from Helen Keller |
This article was published in the Facilitated
Communication Digest. It explores some of the complications
which arise when a person who "appears incompetent" demonstrates unusual
skills, and some of the disadvantages arising from an exclusive
interdependence between a student and her mentor. | |
Helping Facilitated Communication Speakers Make Friends (co-authored with Eugene Marcus) |
"The purpose of this article is to share thoughts that the
two of us have had about our friendship and what we have learned from it.
" | |
The Other Emperor's New Cloak |
A fairy tale about the misuses of "science" and
"expertise," and about the power of community in the face of those
misuses. | |
On Being a Communication Ally |
This article describes the important role that allies can
play in supporting the powerful participation of individuals whose have
difficulty communicating. (I work with the content of this article
in the workshop of
the same name.) | |
Facilitated Communication Articles | ||
| Establishing Reciprocity
in Facilitated Communication Interactions |
"The task for us as facilitators, then, is this: How do we
acknowledge and then move away from our initial position of privilege, in
order to act as allies in the empowerment of those for whom we
facilitate?" | |
| Proposal for a Practical
Shift in Our Language |
"...it may be useful to consider adopting language and
practices which more accurately reflect our understanding of what's going
on. ...Our language must incorporate the honoring of the people who
inhabit that background, their strengths, and their active role in
their own lives." | |
| Understanding and
Negotiating Cue-Seeking by Facilitated Communication Users |
"This paper is an attempt to describe the ways in which a
facilitator can support the facilitated communication user in
understanding his or her cue-seeking strategies, in mastering
those strategies which are effective, socially acceptable, and
which contribute to the empowerment of the facilitated
communication user, and in recognizing and avoiding those
strategies which are not." | |
| Message-Passing:
Part of the Journey to Empowered Communication (written with
Annegret Schubert) |
"Message-passing ... is an important skill in the repertoire of all fully participatory members of the community. It is through message-passing that we make our knowledge known. Through message-passing we connect with others, we become known as reliable people and as truth tellers." | |