By Tiffany (TJ) Joseph, Bened Life Neurodiversity and Disability Advocate
Bened Life loves supporting non-profit organizations that impact the communities we serve. Through one of our Neurodiversity and Disability Specialists, Isaiah Grewal, we learned about I-ASC and its flagship annual event, Motormorphosis.
The International Association for Spelling as Communication, aka I-ASC (pronounced “I-ask"), is a global organization that serves nonspeaking neurodivergent individuals and their families. They describe their mission as “seek[ing] to make spelling and the relevant supports accessible to every person who is unable to use speech as a reliable means of communication, regardless of geography, age, socio-economic or educational status.”
In other words, you can say I-ASC is a hub for learning, advocacy, and community for Nonspeaking individuals and those who support them, centered around communication as a human right.
The organization’s main purpose is to make communication accessible for ALL Nonspeaking individuals. I-ASC focuses on spelled and/or typed communication that is a method that is attainable to Nonspeaking Autistic individuals of all ages. Their goal is to show families and educators how achieving spelled communication and proper education is attainable for everyone with patience and understanding of the apraxic body.
What is “Spelling to Communicate”?
It’s important to define what Spelling to Communicate is, as that is the main part of I-ASC. Spelling to Communicate (S2C™) is a form of communication in which individuals point to letters on a board to spell words. I-ASC describes S2C as a form of communication that “empowers nonspeakers to overcome communication barriers posed by [speech].”
Importantly, S2C is accomplished by teaching communicators to use their larger muscles, or gross motor skills, to point to letters on letterboards and eventually keyboards. All other forms of communication use fine motor skills, like speaking with the mouth and tongue, or using fingers and hands to type on devices.
For some Autistic people, there is a brain-body disconnect that hampers controlling one’s own body to varying degrees per individual (dyspraxia). S2C first teaches the motor skills to point to individual letters on a letter board, and then over time to smaller and smaller letters. Eventually individuals learn the motor skills to point or type in order to form words and sentences.
It’s definitely not easy and can take some time. But communication is a lifelong learning process for all beings. It’s always worth the patience and dedication to practice every day to get there. Each day without a way to communicate is traumatic. So, every day that’s not spent furthering communication efforts adds to that trauma.
How to get involved
Events like SpellX and Boards & Chords spotlight spellers. These are annual events that highlight the words and word artistry of Nonspeakers that use written communication to talk. SpellX is an event that happens yearly where Nonspeakers are invited to give a small talk, lecture, or performance using something they have written. Each presentation is a short 3-10 min video. I have seen the last four or five years of SpellX, and I love the insight and diversity of perspectives of Nonspeakers from all over the world.
Boards & Chords is also yearly and features a mini-concert, if you will. The lyrics and writing of Nonspeakers are put to music with live musicians. These songs are lovely, and it’s great to hear how poetic and playful with words the Nonspeakers in these events are.
While SpellX and Boards & Chords are great showcases of talent, my favorite is the biggest annual event of all: Motormorphosis.
The Motormorphosis Conference
According to I-ASC, “Motormorphosis is the biggest conference for the nonspeaking community [in the world]. Each discussion topic is crucial in creating transformation throughout the spellerverse.”
Motormorphosis is a play on words. It is made to describe the two words you hear when you say it: motor and metamorphosis, which means a big change. Motor is a reminder that Autistic people who can’t speak and who move differently have motor and movement challenges, but not intellectual or intelligence differences. Metamorphosis because the entire organization as well as the event are changing the world’s mind about Nonspeaking and minimally-speaking Autistic and Disabled individuals.
So, let’s define the Spellerverse. According to Neuroclastic, an Autistic-run organization, “The Spellerverse is the community of people who spell [or type] to communicate, nonspeakers and their allies and CRPs (communication and regulation partners).”
July 2025 was my 4th Motormorphosis conference. I have to say that it’s the thing I look forward to most every summer. I love seeing and talking to my friends from all over the world. I love hearing the science lectures and talks from the greatest researchers that are finally helping Nonspeaking Autistic and Disabled individuals to find causes and help for their biggest issues. And the best part, the new research studies use Nonspeakers and Motormorphosis as a way to find and recruit people where otherwise, it would be much harder to find suitable candidates for those studies. In fact, there are some studies set up to be done right there on the spot!
Now, let’s talk about what goes on at Motormorphosis each year. The very first thing you will notice is the atmosphere. It’s one of full acceptance and inclusion. People who are normally unfairly judged and not accepted in public because of the sounds and movements their bodies make out of their control, are finally fully accepted.
Sometimes, even just one Nonspeaking Disabled person with an unruly and loud body would be looked at, stared upon, and treated poorly, asked to leave, or even banned from similar public locations. Instead, everyone involved is free to stim or make unexpected sounds or movements to self-soothe, and move in complete freedom without worry about being judged or treated unfairly due to their disability.
The hotel venues where the events are held are empathetic and accommodating. The staff learns exactly how to treat our large group of several dozen loud people who jump around, make random noises, and sudden movements, which is exactly what we need throughout the rest of the world.
The atmosphere of camaraderie, love, and inclusion cannot be explained in words, especially coming from people who are constantly judged outside of a venue such as Motormorphosis.
This year’s Motormorphosis was in July 2025. I took one of my besties and their Nonspeaking Autistic adult child with us. I have a hard time explaining just how much it meant to me that my Nonspeaking friends welcomed them and spent the time to talk with us and encourage my friend and their child’s future in communication.
The inspiration from already-fluent communicators to a new budding communicator was palpable. My friend and their Autistic loved one came away from Motormorphosis with so much new-found motivation that they have been practicing typing on the letterboard every single day since that weekend!
How to support I-ASC
I-ASC has what is called the Spellers Access Fund: people can donate at https://i-asc.org/donations/. These donations help families that wouldn’t normally be able to afford to learn text and motor-based communication systems themselves. It provides five S2C Certified Practitioner sessions with full sets of letterboards, and workbooks. It is otherwise quite expensive to start these lessons and may not be available in many rural places. Many families have to drive far away for their lessons, which can make the costs even more prohibitive.
Donations also help train new practitioners in more areas all over the world, which makes Spelling to Communicate more accessible for families as well.
Another campaign, called Spellers and Allies Advocacy Network, works to increase public awareness of Spelling and communication issues in multiple areas like the medical and education fields, social media, policy, and the general public.
If you can, please check out I-ASC and donate to their events or scholarship opportunities so that the goal of making communication accessible to Nonspeaking Disabled people gets accomplished more and more everyday.
About the author:
Tiffany “TJ” Joseph (she/ they) is an Autistic AAC user with epilepsy, OCD, and ADHD. She is a parent of three neurodivergent teens, two of whom are Autistic. They have several Nonspeaking Autistic family members and grew up in an inclusive school environment where she was taught to presume competence and intelligence in all humans, regardless of their ability to use mouth speech.
TJ is a paraeducator who works with Autistic students in public school. TJ has given talks to speech language pathologists to train them on high-tech AAC implementation in homes and classrooms at the American Speech and Hearing Associations’ annual conferences. TJ also is a Spelling instructor and communication and regulation partner for Nonspeaking and minimally-speaking Disabled people of all ages. TJ has also been to all four of the Motormorphosis events since 2022 and plans on going every year forward.
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