Analytics: Communication rights special issue

We have just calculated the most recent analytics for the IJSLP communication rights special issue (International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1) https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iasl20/20/1) from the publisher's website:

• Total Views: 471,297
• Total Cross Ref Citations: 661
• Total Altmetric Score: 1256 

My lead article has had 72,615 views, 133 citations, 180 Altmetric score. 

McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687 

This is amazing reach. 

Disability Equity in Research Expert Meeting: Invitation from the World Health Organization

I have been invited to participate in the Disability Equity in Research Expert Meeting - and attended tonight from 11pm - 1am. The invitation came from Kaloyan KAMENOV from the World Health Organization. Here is a summary from the briefing notes:

World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center Guidance Checklists for Disability Equity in Research Persons with disabilities and disability health equity more broadly are often overlooked in research design, study implementation and scientific reporting, as well as in general science communication. This oversight limits the generalizability of research findings and their applicability to clinical practice.
The Disability Equity in Research guidance checklists are primarily designed to:

1. support editors to integrate assessment of disability equity in all manuscripts as an integral part of the editorial process;
2. guide authors in preparing their manuscripts and enhance disability equity in all stages of research -planning, recruitment, data collection, data analysis, and dissemination;
3. facilitate disability equity inclusion in Institutional Review Boards/Ethic Boards procedures; and
4. guide research funders to facilitate inclusion of persons with disabilities in research.

These checklists are informed by a scoping review of 120 documents conducted by the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center and the Disability Programme at the World Health Organization.

 

I have experience in including people with disabilities as authors during my role as editor of International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. An example of the inclusion of the unaltered “voice” of a person with disability is found in the following article. 

Murphy, D., Lyons, R., Carroll, C., Caulfield, M., & De Paor, G. (2018). Communication as a human right: Citizenship, politics and the role of the speech-language pathologist. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 16–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1404129  

Declan Murphy is a 29-year-old with Down Syndrome. He was invited to co-author the following article. As editor, I facilitated the invitation, writing, and publication so that his words remained and were not copyedited/changed. This required many steps to ensure his “voice” was unaltered (including sending the final text to the journal with Declan’s words in a different colour – and notes to the copyeditors not to alter the text). 

“ABSTRACT …The purpose of this paper is to elucidate communication as a human right in the life of a young man called Declan who has Down syndrome. This commentary paper is co-written by Declan, his sister who is a speech-language pathologist (SLP) with an advocacy role, his SLP, and academics. Declan discusses, in his own words, what makes communication hard, what helps communication, his experiences of speech-language pathology, and what he knows about human rights. He also discusses his passion for politics, his right to be an active citizen and participate in the political process…”

The Appendix, on page 20 included the writing and editing contract:

Appendix 
Writing and editing contract with Declan
Declan was asked to write about his experiences under the following headings: what makes communication hard, what helps communication, his experiences of SLP, and what he knows about human rights. A writing and editing contract was drawn up in advance of writing the paper. The contract was, in Declan’s own words, was “these are Declan’s ideas and words; it is Gráinne’s role to support Declan to organise his writing and his ideas; it is ok for Gráinne to correct spellings; it is not ok for Gráinne to change sentences; it is ok for Gráinne to remind Declan of the topic and Declan will make the final decision about what is in this article.” (Murphy et al., 2018, p. 20)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17549507.2018.1404129

Here is a little more from Declan - I was the person who recommended he be invited to open the IALP conference: “I was like a politician myself one time. I did the opening at the IALP [International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics] conference because the Minister for Health was busy. This was huge. My family came to see me. I think they were in shock about my speech and what I said. I have this memory now for all my life because I got a standing ovation. Rena said to me ‘‘how are you so confident up there Declan?’’ I told her and I particularly love this bit that I think about Barack Obama making a speech and then I am not nervous and I just want to do it. “(Murphy et al., 2018, p. 17-18) https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2016/08/30th-world-congress-of-international.htm

LSHSS editors' meeting for clinical forum

Today Kathy Cologon, Helen Blake and I met for our first face-to-face meeting to discuss our clinical forum for Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools titled "Children’s communication and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)".

Here is the call for papers:  https://academy.pubs.asha.org/call-for-papers/childrens-communication-and-the-united-nations-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child-crc/ 

This collection for Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (LSHSS) encourages research submissions that offer insights into children’s communication aligned with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, United Nations, 1989), the United Nations’ most widely ratified human rights treaty.

The CRC is important for everyone, including children with speech, language, communication and swallowing needs, their families, communities, and those who work with them (e.g., speech-language pathologists, audiologists, educators, psychologists, health and medical professionals, lawyers). 

This Clinical Forum of LSHSS encourages papers that address at least one Article of the CRC its the relationship to children’s communication, particularly children with diverse communication abilities. Some papers could focus on communication rights that are mentioned in Articles 2, 12, 13, 29, 30 and 40 of the CRC (McLeod, 2018). The aim is for the Clinical Forum to cover most of the Articles in the CRC – so be creative. 

Papers are sought about children with diverse communication abilities from authors across the world in a variety of disciplines, including from people who live and work in Majority World countries (low and middle-income countries and small island states). Papers that include the perspectives of children are encouraged.

Helen, Sharynne, Kathy

Presentation to UNICEF UK

Today I co-presented an invited paper at the UNICEF UK  Child Rights Academic Research Network with my colleague Prof Yvonne Wren from Bristol University/Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK. 

The purpose of the Network is as follows:

"From the perspective of UNICEF UK, the broad intentions of the network are to:
- Develop an understanding of the scale and scope of research and other activities being undertaken on child rights in the UK
- Provide a forum for disseminating and sharing emerging and final research findings with the network, internal teams, and other key stakeholders such as programme implementers, in other words linking theory with practice.
- Create opportunities for scaling up research on child rights in general, developing the evidence base for our three UUK programmes and other relevant aspects of our work including advocacy and youth voice."

Our presentation was titled "Ensuring all children have a voice: Upholding a child’s right to communicate in the context of speech, language and communication needs". 

Here is today's program - packed with excellent presentations:

I was able to profile the work of the Children's Voices Centre and some of the work we have done over the years including:

• Roulstone, S., & McLeod, S. (Eds.). (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. J&R Press. http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html 
• Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., & Dwyer, J. (Eds.). (2024). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0
• McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687
•  McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2022). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713-731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140
• McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Davies, J., Dealtry, L., Delli-Pizzi, L., Downey, B., Elwick, S., Hopf, S. C., McAlister, H., Ivory, N., Murray, E., Sikder, S., Rahman, A., Tran, V. H., & Zischke, C. (2025). Children draw talking around the world. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Manuscript accepted for publication.
  
  
  
  

Invitation to speak at the UNICEF UK Child Rights Academic Research Network meeting

I have been invited to speak with Prof Yvonne Wren at the UNICEF UK Child Rights Academic Research Network meeting on June 18th at 1-3pm focusing on child/youth voice. Our talk is titled "Ensuring all children have a voice: Upholding a child’s right to communicate in the context of speech, language and communication needs"

Huong Le (UNICEF, UK) indicated that while the network primarily aims to focus on work being undertaken in the UK they welcome learning and research from other parts of the world as well.

The brief is to:

1.    Provide a brief overview of your research on child/youth voice
2.    What are the key findings?
3.    What are the implications of your research for those working in practice?
4.    (Optional fourth question) What are the implications of your research for promoting children's rights?

ACU interview for SPHY406 Module 1: Human Dignity and Human Rights

This morning I was interviewed by A/Prof Jane McCormack for her subject SPHY406 Module 1: Human Dignity and Human Rights. It was a privilege to discuss this important topic.

Here are some of the questions she asked:

• Tell us a little about yourself - what motivated you to become a speech pathologist? What keeps you in the profession?
• What work are you most proud of doing? Why?
• What are "human rights"?  
• What does it mean to say that "Communication is a basic human right"?
• Why are human rights important to our work as speech pathologists?
• Tell us about your experience researching and working in the area of human rights.
• Can you provide an example of when your work has advocated for a client's human rights and a time when you have advocated for the community (eg through legislation or policy)?
• What do speech pathologists need to know/do to be advocates of human rights and human dignity?
• How can graduates be change-makers in this space?

Listen Up: Autistic Youth Need to Be Heard

Our new Children's Voices Centre is important. Here is a new paper that has just been published in the US journal - Pediatrics. The author cited our communication rights paper (McLeod, 2018). Thank you Jace for speaking up! 

Listen Up: Autistic Youth Need to Be Heard 

Pediatrics Perspectives| December 17 2024
Jace E. Pooley
Address correspondence to: Jace Pooley, c/o Andrew F. Beck, MD, MPH, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Ave, MLC 7035, Cincinnati, OH 45229. jacepooley@icloud.com
Pediatrics (2025) 155 (1): e2024069175.
https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2024-069175

Subjects:Autism/ASD, Developmental/Behavioral Health, Interpersonal & Communication Skills
Topics:autistic disorder

Autistic youth need to be heard. Many have a difficult time speaking and are informally called “nonspeakers.” Too often, nonspeakers like me don’t get to share our thoughts even though we have lots to say. We aren’t broken or puzzles to unravel. We are, however, thoughtful and smart. We may not communicate like others do, but we have voices that deserve to be heard. I’d like to use my voice to share what being a nonspeaker means to me.

I’m a nonspeaker. I can say a few things, but not consistently and not always in the way that I intend. That’s part of the reason that I was diagnosed with autism. I hated that diagnosis until recently, because I felt the label suggested that I wasn’t smart. I have long struggled with the way autism is presented: a disease or problem to be solved. But I see autism as having...

Communication is a human right

During the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention I was delighted to spend time with Lynn Williams  - and to share our passion and commitment for communication as a human right.

Lynn mentioned to me that while she was ASHA President she promoted communication rights based on the special issue of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology that I edited:

McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687

It is exciting to see communication rights on ASHA t-shirts and merchandise and now mentioned in ASHA's mission/masthead

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Making effective communication, a human right, accessible and achievable for all.

Invited presentation to the Cylch Ieithyddiaeth/Bangor Linguistics Circle

I was honoured to be invited to speak to the staff and students at Bangor University https://www.bangor.ac.uk/ and the Cylch Ieithyddiaeth/Bangor Linguistics Circle. Thank you to Bethan Collins who organised the event and to the engaged students and staff who attended.

Here is the title of my presentation: Communication professionals need to advocate for communication rights and the Sustainable Development Goals

Here is the abstract:

Communication is a human right for all. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression… regardless of frontiers” (Article 19, United Nations, 1948). As communication professionals, we have the power to enhance everyone’s participation in day-to-day life, families, communities, and society. When we support everyone’s ability to communicate, we contribute to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the five pillars of the 2030 Agenda: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnerships.

McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687

McLeod, S., & Marshall, J. (2023). Communication for all and the Sustainable Development Goals. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2160494

Thank you Bethan Collins (PhD student) who organised the event

Some of the audience in Bangor and online

 

During my conversations I learned about Bangor University's commitment to sustainability and Prof Thora Tenbrink's work. She is Professor of Linguistics and Dean of Research at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Bangor University:

• Director of the Places of Climate Change Research Centre at Bangor University https://www.bangor.ac.uk/plocc and Co-leading the PATCCh WISERD research network (Place-based Approaches To Climate Change)  https://wiserd.ac.uk/project/patcch-network/
  
• Involved in the Public Map Platform project, which gives children on the island of Anglesey a voice regarding their local place, expressed through various arts methods in addition to language (https://publicmap.org/en)
  
• Part of the Rural Wales Local Policy and Innovation Partnership which aims at co-creating solutions to local challenges through communication with rural communities https://www.arsyllfa.cymru/cymru-wledig-lpip-rural-wales-phase-two/
  

 

Finally, I love this message on emails from the university as it encourages multilingualism: 

"Mae croeso i chi gysylltu gyda'r Brifysgol yn Gymraeg neu Saesneg. Ni fydd gohebu yn Gymraeg yn arwain at oedi. You are welcome to contact the University in Welsh or English. Corresponding in Welsh will not lead to delay."

An eloquent description of the impact of our work

I recently came upon this eloquent description of the impact our work we have presented to the UN: 

"By virtue of linking SLT [speech and language therapy] with Human Rights and the UN 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, McLeod and colleagues fundamentally decentred the traditional medical model. Instead, they harnessed frameworks that specifically acknowledge and seek to address issues of injustice and inequalities, hence affording greater alignment with the current reframing of the profession under social justice movements" (Gréaux, 2024)

McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687 

McLeod, S., & Marshall, J. (2023). Communication for all and the Sustainable Development Goals. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2160494

Gréaux, M. (2024). Speech and language therapy workforce diversity: Three studies under an increasing transformative research framework. Unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Cambridge.

Initial collaborations with staff from the School of Information and Communication Studies

I have enjoyed conversations with A/Prof Tina Du, Dr Deborah Wise and Rachel Walls from the School of Information and Communication Studies. There are many synergies with our shared interest in communication rights for all.

A/Prof Tina Du, Head School of Information and Communication Studies

Sharynne, Rachel Walls, Deborah Wise and Tina Du from SICS at The Treehouse

Visible versus invisible disabilities: Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood

What an exciting moment - to hold a book that includes a chapter that I have co-authored with my daughter. 

McLeod, S., & McLeod, J. (2023). Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood. In S. Meyers, M. McCloskey, G. Petri (Eds.). The Routledge international handbook of disability human rights hierarchies. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003410089

I enjoyed the collaboration, conversations, and the task of writing together. I am proud of our thinking, particularly our work on identifying challenges living with visible versus invisible disabilities.

New chapter: Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood

I am so proud to see that this chapter has been published. What an honour to write it with Jessica.

McLeod, S., & McLeod, J. (2023). Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood. In S. Meyers, M. McCloskey, G. Petri (Eds.). The Routledge international handbook of disability human rights hierarchies. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003410089

Here is the abstract:

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (United Nations, 1948) and Article 2 says that the right to communication should occur “without distinction of . . . language.” These powerful statements underscore that all people have the right to communicate. This right, however, is often not met for children with communication disabilities whose families do not speak the dominant language of the community. Case studies from Australia, Fiji, Iceland, and Vietnam help elaborate hierarchies of disability human rights relating to communication. 

Here is the direct link to our chapter:

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003410089-24/communication-rights-moderated-hierarchies-disability-childhood-sharynne-mcleod-jessica-mcleod?context=ubx&refId=843415bf-9187-47d9-9935-405e5c17d57a

The right to accessible communication/acoustic environments

This morning I met with Adam Bannister, Director, Pyrus Event Services to discuss the audio visual requirments for my upcoming public lecture. I was so immpressed by his knowledge and capacity to provide accessible communication environments using quality acoustics, captioning (via stenographers), Auslan interpreters, etc. His work aligns with our work on communication rights:

McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687

Van Den Heuij, K. M. L., Neijenhuis, K., & Coene, M. (2018). Acoustic environments that support equally accessible oral higher education as a human right. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 108-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2017.1413136

Later this morning the School of Education Board meeting was discussing universal design for all of our students. What important concepts to discuss today.

Communication rights for teenagers with cerebral palsy in Ukraine

The following article has just been published reporting on a human rights program for teenagers in Ukraine with cerebral palsy: 

Maksymchuk, B., Sarancha, I., Husak, A., Avramenko, O., Kuzmenko, I., Kuzmenko, V., Slyusarenko, N., Chepurna, L., Pankevych, V., Babii, I., & Maksymchuk, I. (2022). Implementing the course “Human Rights” for children with special needs under the changed socio-educational conditions. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 14(3), 428-443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.3/617 

In the article, they reference my paper:

McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687

It is amazing to see the reach of this work!

Page proofs about children's communication rights in ECEC

I really enjoy working on page proofs. They usually appear a number of years after a project begins. Today we finalised page proofs for this chapter that was part of Anna Cronin's PhD research: 

Cronin, A., McLeod, S., & Wren, Y. (2020, accepted August). Communication rights of young children in early childhood education and care. In F. Press & S. Cheeseman (Eds.). (Re)conceptualising children’s rights in infant-toddler early childhood care and education: Transnational conversations. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. 

Book series: Policy and Pedagogy with Under-three Year Olds: Cross-disciplinary Insights and Innovations, Vol. 4,

Communication is everyone’s right: Speech Pathology Australia

Speech Pathology Week but postponed because of Melbourne’s most recent lockdown, the Speech Pathology Australia forum to discuss ‘Communication is everyone’s right’ was rescheduled. On Thursday 2 December, on the eve of the International Day of People with Disability, the Association hosted a forum around the theme for this year’s Speech Pathology Week: ‘Communication is everyone's right!’ The panel discussion was facilitated by the Association’s National President, Tim Kittel. The panelists for the forum were: 

• Meredith Allan, Disability Advocate and Consultant; 
• Simon Oakley, Chair, Aphasia Victoria; 
• Jewel Topsfield, Social Affairs Editor, The Age newspaper; and 
• Jennifer Fitzgerald, Chief Executive Officer, SCOPE Australia AM. 

Reviewers' feedback: Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood

We have just received reviews of our chapter titled "Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood" which we submitted in May to "Hierarchies of Disability Human Rights" edited by Stephen Meyers, Megan McCloskey and Gabor Petri for the Interdisciplinary Disability Studies Book Series to be published by Routledge Press, NY. 

While there were a few minor recommended changes we were thrilled with their overall summaries of our chapter: 

Reviewer 1: "This is an important and well-written chapter. It clearly established the international legal framework for the right to education, describes barriers to that right, and provides a case study on children with disabilities’ right to education in Australia..." 

Reviewer 2: "This is a well-written chapter that readers will find fascinating. Communication rights seem to be somewhat hidden in disability human rights discussion, therefore this chapter will be a valuable addition to our edited volume..."

Jess McLeod and Sharynne

Happy Speech Pathology Week

This is Speech Pathology Week in Australia. Speech Pathology Australia's campaign theme is "Communication is everyone's right" - a theme I certainly embrace! I have been priviledged to work with Speech Pathology Australia to prepare for this week by being interviewed on their weekly podcast and also working with their media team to prepare media releases on the theme. Here is one of their digital resources for the week.

Charles Sturt University published the following media release after interviewing Dr Sarah Verdon: https://news.csu.edu.au/opinion/for-children-with-communication-disorders,-parents-and-educators-are-the-first-responders

Happy Speech Pathology Week from the ASHA President, Lynn Williams

 

Speech Pathology Week 2021

22-28 August is Speech Pathology Week 2021. The theme is Communication is everyone's right. https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/whats_on/Speech_Pathology_Week  

"Speech pathologists work to ensure everyone can communicate with confidence. It is important that the broader community understands that: 

• communication is a basic human right;
• 1.2 million Australians live with communication disability;
• communication disability is largely invisible. Unseen and out-of-sight;
• confident communication helps maximise educational, health and social outcomes; and 
• communication is more than just speech. "

I was interviewed by Speech Pathology Australia for their SPA Week podcast which will be released soon.