Facilitated Communication Institute

The Facilitated Communication Institute conducts research, training, and public education designed to expand opportunities for people with disabilities to be heard and to participate fully in society. Faculty, staff and students at Syracuse University founded the Institute in 1992; its purpose is to focus attention on individuals with developmental disabilities who have traditionally been silenced as a result of their own communication disabilities and by social policy and human service practices that ignore their communication potential.

Facilitated Communication is an alternative means of expression for people who cannot speak or whose speech is highly limited (echoed, limited to one or a few word utterances) and who cannot point reliably.