A Disability Activist Is Asked to Change Her Speech By Boston University Her Response: In Future Speaking Contracts, No Changes will be Allowed

September 22, 2023 1 min read

Kristen Shahverdian, Samantha LaFrance
PEN America

Excerpt: Earlier this month, when disability activist Alice Wong submitted her remarks for a virtual talk at Boston University’s School of Public Health, the school made an unusual request: to change what she planned to say.

Because she cannot speak, Wong requires questions in advance of public appearances. This allows her to type answers ahead of time to more efficiently use a text-to-speech app. Days before the scheduled talk, a school official wrote to Wong, asking that she change “F U Dr. Fauci” to “I disagree with Dr. Fauci” and to remove the names of the other officials. In doing so, the school inadvertently transformed a simple accessibility request into an opportunity to muffle the activist’s speech.

Click here for link to full article

Leave a comment


Also in National Free Speech News & Commentary

Commentary: The Decline and Fall of Katherine Franke

January 20, 2025 1 min read

Cary Nelson and Joe Lockard
Quillette

Excerpt: On 10 January 2025, Katherine Franke announced her departure from the Columbia University Law School. After she issued a public statement, she had it republished on the Academe blog of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). 

Two of Franke’s law-school colleagues had filed a complaint after Franke gave an interview to Democracy Now on 25 January 2024, in which she claimed that IDF veterans enrolled at Columbia had a history of harassing other students but that the university was not taking this harassment seriously. The complaint stated that Franke had “harassed members of the Columbia community based on their national origin.” An independent law-firm investigation found that she had violated university anti-discrimination policy.

Read More
Letter from FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff to U.S. President Donald Trump

January 20, 2025 1 min read

Greg Lukianoff
Foundation for Individual Rights in Expression

Excerpt: Dear President Trump,

My name is Greg Lukianoff, and I am the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that defends the rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought.

Last year was the worst year on record for free speech on college campuses. We’re still facing a deluge of campus censorship cases related to October 7 and its aftermath. More attempts were made to deplatform speakers on campus than any year since FIRE began tracking in 1998. And professors are censoring themselves more now than at the height of the McCarthy era.

Read More
Commentary: Can Cornell Alumni Steer Their University Away from Campus Madness?

January 19, 2025 1 min read

Jack Fowler
National Review

Excerpt: For reputation-tattered Cornell University, 2024 was a bad year — the pain self-inflicted. As the school prepares for late-February elections of alumni members to the Board of Trustees, one wonders: Will 2025 deliver another (self-infliction encore!) Ivy League black eye?

Some concerned graduates are refusing complacency while the university board relentlessly rubber-stamps the administration’s ideological obsessions, tarnishing the once-prestigious brand. They have grabbed an opportunity -- the formal, annual election of two new alumni trustees -- to put two fresh-thinking, independent, and unendorsed (more on that below) candidates on the ballot.

Read More