Communication Disability - What Does It Mean To You?

Communication disability occurs when a person’s communication, using spoken, written, signed and/or other nonverbal means, is sufficiently differently from others in their community, that it affects their ability to participate in life and their ability to achieve their human rights.

In her inaugural professorial Lecture, Professor Julie Marshall will talk about two strands of her work related to people who experience communication disability. The first covers people’s views and understanding of communication development, communication disability and appropriate responses to communication disability. She will report on research on this topic in relation to: people who experience communication disability, family and community members, students and qualified speech and language therapists, and the wider the health and education workforce. The second strand concerns the development of appropriate services and support for people who experience communication disability, in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. She will report on projects in a number of countries. These have involved working with people who experience communication disability themselves, street-connected children, caregivers, speech and language therapists, refugee communities, humanitarian service providers and other key stakeholders. These two strands are inter-connected, particularly through issues of culture and diversity. Key messages will be given for each piece of work.

Biography
Julie Marshall is Professor of Communication Disability and a Speech and Language Therapist by background. She has worked for 37 years in the UK and internationally, particularly in Africa. She has been at Manchester Metropolitan University for 20 years. Julie researches, teaches and supports service developments that aim to improve life participation for people who experience communication disability. Much of her work has been with under-served groups. Her work has covered a range of topics including people’s knowledge and understanding of communication and communication disability, culture and communication disability, street-connected children, refugees who experience sexual and gender-based violence, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, accessible communication, helping to establish new services, education and training programmes for SLTs, teachers and the health workforce, and supporting UK speech and language therapists to work in Low and Middle-Income countries.