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5/24/10

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.

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?

5/3/10

Diversity: It Means Whatever ASHA Says It Means


Multiculturalism: It's What Keeps America Strong

 Item: In 2008, ASHA spent $872,533 on “multicultural affairs” That was an increase of $136,445 over 2007’s budget of $736,088 (source: ASHA's 2008 tax returns).

Whenever someone says that they want to start a committee because “we need to give more attention to diversity and multiculturalism,” here' s what they really mean: “this organization better start forking over some serious money to my group or else.” And whenever a committee, event, or project describes itself as “multicultural” or “diverse,” you can bet that it will be mostly liberals, African-Americans, Hispanics, and gays dominating the show, writing up the very tightly-controlled agenda, and laying down the strict Soviet-style limits on speech and discussion (all in the interest of “encouraging dialogue,” of course). Since those annoying Caucasians, conservatives, heterosexuals, and Christians don’t really count as cultural groups (the only time that liberals think white men and women count as members of a cultural group is when they are also gay or lesbian), they don’t have to be taken seriously and included in any multicultural diversity committees. Besides, the presence of these latter groups would be an obstacle to achieving the real goal of most multicultural and diversity committees: to engage in money and power grabs.
ASHA loves to preach about the importance of diversity and multiculturalism. But what exactly does ASHA mean by diversity and multiculturalism? I think the answer is: whatever ASHA says they mean. ASHA is a lot like Humpty Dumpty in "Alice Through The Looking Glass":


 There's glory for you!'
`I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'
`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.
`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'
`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master -- that's all.' 

ASHA preaching about the importance of diversity and multiculturalism?! ASHA's kidding, right? What looking glass world has ASHA become stuck in? Where are the men in this strange, almost completely unisexual, estrogen-soaked world called ASHA, or does ASHA not include men in its definition of diversity? Where are the conservative voices in this wondrous fantasy land of diversity, or does ASHA define diversity to mean everyone mindlessly parroting the same tired politically correct buzzwords and phrases to each other without ever being questioned or challenged? And how can this never-never land called ASHA be considered diverse in values and beliefs when ASHA has taken it upon itself to include a gay rights bill as part of its official policy agenda, demonstrating profound indifference and disrespect for the values and beliefs of many of its members?

`When I use a word,' ASHA said, in rather a scornful tone,
`it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'