Crossley was soon asked to work with other people without speech, and in 1986 she founded the DEAL Communication Centre in Caulfield. The centre began by working mainly with people with cerebral palsy like Anne McDonald, but soon found itself taking on clients with other diagnoses – trauma, down syndrome, rett syndrome, developmental disabilities, and, increasingly, autism.
She was a skilful therapist – passionate, understanding, knowledgeable, sympathetic, demanding, and always beginning from an assumption of competence. In case after case, Crossley was able to establish a means of communication with the client, demonstrating that their diagnoses of intellectual disability had been made in error.
Crossley described her methods as Facilitated Communication Training, involving co-active hand-on-hand movement at the beginning of the training process. While she always aimed for eventual independent communication, the method was criticised for allowing communicators to impose their messages on their partners.
The controversy never went away. Nonetheless, many people who Crossley had helped communicate went on to communicate independently, graduating from schools and universities in Australia and around the world. Crossley’s message was always that a diagnosis of intellectual impairment should be resorted to, if at all, only after all efforts to establish communication had failed.
When Anne McDonald died in 2010, DEAL changed its name to the Anne McDonald Centre, but the work went on. iPads, in particular, have spread hand-pointing skills more widely, and newer clients were better able to communicate more independently sooner.
Crossley wrote books (including The Dole Cookbook, 1978; Facilitated Communication Training, 1994; Speechless, 1997) and journal articles, lectured at universities, and presented papers at conferences around the world. Professor Douglas Biklen helped spread her message in the US, and her influence in non-speech communication internationally was considerable.
She was awarded an AM in 1986 for services to people with severe communication impairments and took a doctorate in communication from Victoria University in 1998. She was admired for her indomitable spirit, her determination, and her ability to empower others in advocating for themselves and for the people they loved.
Dr Crossley died of cancer in the Royal Melbourne Hospital on May 10. She was working till the end: in the hospital, she was able to assist with books, boards, and iPad apps a nurse who had a child with communication handicap.
Together, Crossley and McDonald changed the history of disability. Crossley’s life work of teaching, researching, and advocating for people with little or no functional speech has improved the lives of thousands of the most vulnerable people in many countries and over five decades. Her sharp intellect and wicked good humour will be missed.
Tim Chan, one of Crossley’s clients, said of her: “When you are a non-speaker the world is like the outer reaches of space, remote, cold and uninhabited. We are prisoners of silence … Extreme isolation and deep loneliness are our constant companions. But life can become bearable with a means to communicate, with a ‘voice’ to reach out to people who listen to what we type, to find ways to connect, to become part of the human world. In helping us find our voice, Rosemary Crossley brought us out of that darkness.”
The world has lost an important voice speaking out for the rights of people with disabilities. A memorial service will be held on Monday, June 5, at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Jan Ashford is a former director of Communication Rights Australia, and Chris Borthwick was Rosemary’s partner.