Elizabeth Bonker, the class of 2022 valedictorian at Rollins College, spoke inspirational words at her graduation ceremony despite the fact that she is mute. She has non-verbal autism and uses typing to express herself.

In keeping with the college’s slogan, ‘Life is for service,’ she implores her fellow graduates during her moving speech to ‘see the worth in every human we meet” and to help others.

I was a healthy baby who started talking at a young age. Then, at the age of 15 months, my ability to speak was mysteriously taken away. I was diagnosed with autism at Yale Medical School when my parents took me there.

My parents were never discouraged by what the physicians said about me. They understood that I was a thinking person confined to a silent space.

Bonker started to learn how to communicate with the aid of Soma Mukhopadhyay, the innovator of a technique known as the rapid prompting method (RPM).

‘My journey has not always been straightforward, but I think a life of service is more like a marathon than a sprint. And as I fight to provide a voice to my brothers and sisters who suffer in silence, I am celebrating the minor successes along the way.

Every non-speaker with autism can learn to communicate like I do, despite the fact that non-speaking autism is so poorly known and is not a cognitive disorder.’