Imagine going through your everyday routine conversing via iPad. This scenario is a daily reality for Jasmynn Archer, an 18-year-old high school student living with autism. Though she is technically nonverbal, she is able to use an iPad to communicate with family and friends.
Jasmynn and her parents, Melissa and David Archer, will be on campus March 20 as the Disabilities Awareness Week (DAW) Convocation Speakers. Melissa and David will demonstrate how Jasmynn uses her iPad and discuss their nonprofit organization, Jasmynn’s Voice.
Melissa and David started Jasmynn’s Voice in 2012 to provide iPads to adults and children living with nonverbal autism. To maximize the time she would be able to devote to the nonprofit, Melissa Archer retired from her work as a teacher.
According to the Archer family, Jasmynn’s Voice is meant to “provide a voice to those living with autism, so that they may engage within a community rich in awareness, understanding and acceptance.”
Jasmynn’s Voice has provided 325 iPads as an “AAC [Augmentative and alternative communication] device to those that have autism and struggle with language deficits/delays,” stated in a recent article.
If the loved ones of an individual living with nonverbal autism desire an iPad from Jasmynn’s Voice, they must contact the nonprofit’s board and receive training on how to use it as a communication device.
“Jasmynn meets every single recipient,” Melissa said in the article.
The College World 