Human Rights in Communication
An SLP advocates for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) access for a non-speaking client because communication is considered essential for human dignity and participation in society.
What is the human right to communication?
A school district gives every child identical therapy time regardless of individual communication needs.
What is equality?
A university increases representation of diverse faculty but does not change the policies that created inequities in hiring.
What is an affirmative remedy?
A bilingual autistic child from a low-income household experiences barriers in education because multiple identities intersect.
What is intersectionality?
A clinician controls the conversation during therapy and dismisses a client’s attempt to communicate alternative ideas.
What is power in communicative interaction?
A clinician incorporates fairness, respect, autonomy, and dignity into assessment decisions rather than relying only on standardized test scores.
What is a human rights approach to clinical practice?
A speech-language pathologist provides additional interpreter services, culturally appropriate materials, and extended evaluation time for multilingual children.
What is equity?
A professional organization changes licensure policies, admission criteria, and funding structures to remove systemic barriers.
What is a transformative remedy?
An SLP considers how race, disability, language status, and socioeconomic status interact when planning intervention.
What is intersectional clinical reasoning?
A professional recognizes that the rules of professional communication often reflect the norms of dominant cultural groups.
What is the culture of power?
A national policy ensures that individuals with disabilities have access to education, healthcare, and communication supports in accordance with international agreements.
What is the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)?
A clinic redistributes funding so that schools in historically underserved communities receive more speech-language therapy resources.
What is an equity-based approach to service distribution?
A clinician works to dismantle cultural and linguistic hierarchies within the field of speech-language pathology.
What is social justice in professional practice?
A clinician asks themselves which identities and power dynamics may be influencing their interpretation of a client’s communication behavior.
What is intersectional self-reflection?
A clinician notices that people with institutional authority often fail to recognize how power operates within professional interactions.
What is the inverse relationship between power and recognition of power?