ASHA And LinguiSystems: Fluency Website Advised ASHA To "Take Its Own Code Of Ethics Seriously"

Does ASHA need to be encouraged to take its own code of ethics seriously? One fluency website thought so.
This is a must-read story. It involves ASHA's - let's say interesting - relationship with LinguiSystems. On January 17, 2010, StutterTalk was so concerned with the ethical questions this relationship raised that they published the following plea to ASHA on their website:

• Put ethics and ethical considerations before financial considerations, to
• Initiate ethical investigations on its own and to fully accept its role in enforcing the Code of Ethics, to
• Carefully screen and take notice of the actions of donors and companies ASHA does business with, and
• Take its own Code of Ethics seriously. (Bold and Italics added)

I'm not at liberty to reprint all the material related to this story but you can read everything by linking here, here, here. It is definitely worth your time to check out those links as they explain what moved the honorable and courageous speech professionals at StutterTalk to publish their plea to ASHA.

A petition was prepared, asking ASHA

to rigorously enforce compliance to its self-imposed Code of Ethics

The petition was signed by some of the heaviest hitters in the professions.

Question: Does ASHA need to have powerful pressure applied to it by the membership to make it follow its own code of ethics?
No prizes for guessing my answer to this question: sorry - too easy.

I'm sure that it was nothing but an astonishing coincidence that certain changes were made just when this story was threatening to become a major public relations disaster for ASHA.

Sure (hand over mouth and chuckling).

There was a time when I thought that ASHA was a good professional organization that had simply gotten off track. No more. I now believe that ASHA only values ethics when it is convenient and profitable for ASHA to be ethical or to give the appearance of being ethical. Go to the links, read, and decide for yourself. As for me, I will never again trust ASHA to do the right thing for either the professions or the membership. I believe that ASHA will only change when it is forced to change. If you were getting paid nearly a half million dollars a year in salary and compensation (as ASHA's executive director is), you might be pretty protective of your gig. Sometimes when non-profits get too big for their britches, the well-being of the organization becomes more important than the cause the organization was set up for.

The more I learn about ASHA and how it operates, the more I feel the need to reach for the hand sanitizer.






BREAKING NEWS: on the morning this post appeared, ASHA's website was promoting a live web/telephone seminar on ethics.  LOL! For $79, you can attend a program

designed to assist practitioners in identifying possible ethical violations, and the use of a model to decide on a course of action.

 No word yet on whether ASHA will be a topic for discussion.
What's next? British Petroleum teaching a seminar on keeping our beaches clean?