Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. - Demosthenes (384-322 BC)
Introductory textbooks in speech-language pathology often include stories about how Demosthenes overcame barriers to communication by learning to speak with pebbles in his mouth. Whether these stories are true, or merely examples of Demosthenes' persistence and determination, is not fully known.1 Plutarch, however, when describing Demosthenes' personal efforts to improve his speech production 4 hundred years later, also described Demosthenes' early discourse as "cumbered with long sentences and tortured with formal arguments to a most harsh and disagreeable excess."2
No one in the 21st century would even know who Demosthenes was if he had not learned to make his discourse accessible to others. He is known today because he became a prominent Greek statesman and orator in Athens whose participation in the public discourse on the social topics of the day made an impact. His speech initially might have been impaired, but his messages had substance, and he must have learned how to make his discourse accessible in the broader social context. The outcome was that he was able to take small opportunities and turn them into a great communicative enterprise that has survived the centuries. The degree to which Demosthenes was supported by others in his social system to gain access to its opportunities and rewards is not clear from the historical record, but the quote with which we began this column suggests that Demosthenes had a view of opportunity as part of the equation. It is an opportunity through lowered barriers that is at the thematic heart of this issue of the Topics in Language Disorders on "Communication Access: Models and Methods for Promoting Social Inclusion."
To explore this topic and kindle the reader's imagination of new possibilities for universal designs of clinical, school, and community contexts that promote and support full participation, issue editor, Judy Duchan, herself a creative, forward thinker, has assembled an internationally prominent, creative group of authors. They write from varying perspectives on the topic of lowering social and technological barriers and promoting access.
Access to participation in all aspects of school and society is an important shared goal of clinicians and others working alongside individuals facing communication barriers to their full participation in the general education curriculum of school, clinical services, community activities, the arts, conversational story telling, and resources of the legal system. This issue of the journal includes stories of persistent communicators who have been determined and creative in addressing their communicative goals. The primary message, however, is about changing the broader communication systems of contexts and situations, rather than the personal communication systems of people. It is about partnership and shared responsibility for removing barriers and enhancing access in a way that becomes a natural part of social expectation, not a special function of a few innovative individuals or centers.
Great enterprises and new ways of addressing complex issues start often with the forward-thinking and stimulating questions of those who dare to challenge the way things have been traditionally done and open new opportunities for others. Change also comes through the hard work, intellectual insights, and persistence in the face of setbacks and difficulty by those developing new technologies, conceptual frameworks, and educational models. Readers may approach this issue through many lenses-a clinician seeking to make clinical discourse more accessible to a culturally diverse clientele; a school-based team seeking to widen opportunities for curricular participation; a community developer seeking to widen access to creative thinking about and artistic expression; a legal advocate seeking to educate others about invisible barriers; a clinic director seeking to enlist community members to reconceptualize rehabilitation; a developer of new technologies seeking to support the sharing and interpretations of experience through stories; or a person who has had first-hand experience with barriers and knows that there must be a better way. Skilled authors will help readers see through many of these lenses in the pages of this issue.
As in all issues of Topics in Language Disorders, we intend that this one will stimulate readers to imagine possibilities that go beyond the static page and trigger new questions and ways of thinking about complex issues. These are dynamic articles that should get the creative juices flowing about opportunities that grow from the outside-in as well as the inside-out. We are happy to introduce this exciting issue and to invite you on a journey toward great enterprise.
-Nickola Wolf Nelson, PhD, Editor
-Katharine G. Butler, PhD, Editor Emerita
1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosthenes#Speech_training[Context Link]
2Plutarch, Demosthenes, p.8. [Context Link]