| Deej | |
| Director: | Robert Rooy |
| Runtime: | 72 minutes |
Deej is a 2017 documentary about David James (DJ) Savarese, a nonspeaking autistic teenager who communicates with a voice synthesizer. The film has been criticized as using the scientifically discredited facilitated communication technique;[1] however, it has been pointed out that Deej actually used augmentative and alternative communication, a technique that does work but is often mistaken for facilitated communication.[2]
The film was directed by Robert Rooy. David James Savarese, known as DJ or Deej, was also credited as a director and co-producer of the documentary.[3] The film depicts Savarese as an activist with the goal of promoting communication access for nonspeaking autistic people as part of the neurodiversity movement.[4]
Savarese was adopted from the foster care system and diagnosed early in life as autistic.[5] As a child, his adoptive parents struggled to ensure his inclusion in the local public school system.[6] Eventually winning the right for Savarese to receive education in public schools, his parents framed their challenges as a civil rights struggle against ableism.[7] [8] Since the events featured in Deej, Savarese was awarded a degree from Oberlin College.[9]
Deej aired nationally on PBS in October 2017.[10]
The film's relationship to facilitated communication was the subject of one critical essay in a peer reviewed journal.[11] Behavioral scientist and author, Craig Foster notes that Deej is never shown independently communicating or exhibiting his "hidden intelligence", even though the documentary implies that he does. Foster argues the documentary does not mention that scientific studies have raised questions about facilitated communication and that "skepticism toward facilitated communication is necessary to ameliorate its harmful influence and to encourage genuine acceptance of people with complex communication needs."
Janyce L. Boynton, a former facilitator who has become a critic of facilitated communication, judges the film in a review to be "uncritical promotion" of facilitated communication and notes that the film's editors "chose to leave out some vital information." She concludes that the documentary is a "missed opportunity to teach people what about what living with autism is really like" and that the story the film tells is "one sided and built on facilitator-authored messages."[12]
On September 14, 2019, neurodivergence advocate Shannon Des Roches Rosa published an article pointing out that Deej did not, in fact, use facilitated communication. Rosa argues that Foster, the scientist who first criticized Deej, mistook a different technique, known as augmentative and alternative communication, for facilitated communication. She further admonished Foster’s article as an example of confirmation bias and scientific ableism, drawing attention to Foster's failure to contact or interview relevant parties before presenting his allegation professionally.[2]