Ms Carmel Ryan:

Fiacre and I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to address it. My son, Fiacre, has non-verbal autism, and assistive technology plays an important role in his life. I am speaking his words today on his behalf and on behalf of many other children and adults who live with autism.

Fiacre and many more non–verbal, minimally verbal and unreliably verbal people have been denied the supports they need because of one perception, that is, someone who cannot speak is regarded as not having intelligence. This is a common perception held by psychologists, speech and other therapists, teachers, other professionals and even the children's parents themselves, since that is what they have been told. In this country, a non-verbal child's future is decided on by a psychological assessment based on a series of verbal tasks, which he or she cannot possibly access. We do not assume that deaf or blind people have lesser intelligence. Why so with autism? This is the perception that Fiacre challenges by his very presence here today and that he has had to challenge every single day of his life. In his own words, "I'm afraid of people who feel that people with autism are less than others. I am speaking for all who are hidden in a world of outside shadows, waiting to be heard, waiting to be accepted".

Fiacre relies on assistive technology, which we have paid for ourselves down through the years, to communicate and learn. He uses an alphabet letter board - I have two with me - and augmentative and alternative communication, AAC, devices, such as a QWERTY keyboard, an iPad, a laptop and a computer, to type his words. He has learned to communicate in this way by training in the rapid prompting method of education, RPM, which we sourced from the USA and is now being developed by parents in Ireland.

As Fiacre writes in his book, Speechless, he has struggled to complete his education due to a lack of understanding of autism, a lack of supports and resources, and the lack of access to, and training in, technology suited to his particular needs. He writes:

It only seems appropriate to give the same rights given to those without autism to individuals with it. Needing some type of assistance does not make someone less of a person. ... Try to see past the autism and realise that we are the same inside as others. I really only mostly try to show that I am not stupid.

No child should be made to feel that he or she is "stupid". No parent should ever have to listen to those words. Our children with autism deserve better. Assistive technology for each child should be a right, not something parents and schools have to beg for, requiring numerous letters of support, scrabbling to pay for appropriate training, struggling to pay for programmes and apps, and struggling for resources and equipment. Every child should have the right to communication and independence, with appropriate technological resources provided automatically by the Departments of Health and Education throughout his or her life.

In Fiacre's case, his breakthrough came when he learned how to communicate through RPM. Parents are asking the Department of Education to establish a pilot scheme in schools to assist other parents and children. Louis Braille died in 1852, and Braille was only officially adopted in schools in 1918. Likewise, sign language started in the 17th century before becoming an official language in the 1960s. Let us hope that our Irish education system does not take as long to adopt new teaching methods and make assistive technology available to all students with autism.

Fiacre wrote a poem, "Understand the Different", about what he feels like being different:

Teenager sees how I am, sees yet each teenage want, taught to spell some reasons with his sayings, with his telling of each story to use codes, and to reach the world.

He reasons and tells sad tales of history, when people were persecuted and exterminated, and he reckons that some still try to silence ones who are different.

Talk is our utmost difference, and we are silenced when we spell what others do not want to know.

Please listen today to the voices of those who have been silenced by our society. It is time that they are heard, valued and understood.

It is time to support these children and adults properly in communication, education and employment.