23 Facts About Rosemary Crossley

Rosemary Crossley was an Australian author and advocate for disability rights.

Rosemary Crossley was one of the first major advocates for facilitated communication, a scientifically discredited technique which purports to help non-verbal people communicate.

Rosemary Crossley dedicated her life to helping those with little or no functional speech.

Rosemary Crossley died after a short battle with cancer on 10 May 2023, at the age of 78.

In 1975, Rosemary Crossley was working at St Nicholas Hospital, Carlton, Victoria, which was run by the Mental Health Authority and housed children with intellectual disabilities.

Concerned that the hospital schedule accommodated inflexible staffing arrangements, rather than the needs of the children, Rosemary Crossley made a submission to a Victorian committee on mental retardation.

Rosemary Crossley raised questions with the Mental Health Authority about some of the children in the hospital, claiming that although they had severe physical disabilities, they were not intellectually disabled.

Rosemary Crossley was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 1986 Queen's Birthday Honours, for her services to people with severe communication impairment.

However, many experienced speech therapy professionals said that Rosemary Crossley was manipulating the hands of her clients, and the thoughts that were written were those of Rosemary Crossley herself.

Rosemary Crossley established the DEAL Communication Centre, which was later renamed the Anne McDonald Centre.

The latter asserted that Rosemary Crossley falsely claimed facilitated communication was effective for McDonald, as McDonald did not have the capability to advocate for herself.

The newspaper later published clarifications that they did not intend to convey the meaning that Rosemary Crossley deliberately misled people, nor that she was a criminal.

Rosemary Crossley claimed in the 1993 Frontline documentary "Prisoners of Silence" that a comatose man that she was working with could pick his own housing arrangement, but Frontline disproved this claim using digital overlays.

Rosemary Crossley was involved in multiple court cases concerning false abuse allegations made through facilitated communication.

Rosemary Crossley had attempted to go on trips with Leonie McFarlane, another individual who has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal, to a conference about disability in another state, but her application to the Supreme Court was not successful.

Rosemary Crossley had previously been banned from seeing McFarlane in 1980 at St Nicholas Hospital, but after the closure of the hospital, McFarlane had often gone on outings with Rosemary Crossley and McDonald.

Rosemary Crossley attempted to give a woman named Angela Wallace the legal right to leave the institution she was at by using facilitated communication.

Rosemary Crossley is a co-author of Annie's Coming Out, a story about a girl named Anne McDonald whom Rosemary Crossley claimed had learned to communicate through facilitated communication.

In 1977, when McDonald was 16, Rosemary Crossley reported that she was able to communicate with her by supporting her upper arm while she selected word blocks and magnetic letters.

Rosemary Crossley continued using similar strategies with McDonald and other individuals with disabilities, developing what has become known as facilitated communication training.

Rosemary Crossley received a posthumous award from the Australian Group on Severe Communication Impairment.

Rosemary Crossley later wrote Speechless: Facilitating Communication for People Without Voices about the experiences of several people who she considered to have first acquired communication through this technique.

Rosemary Crossley was the Keynote Conference Speaker at the International Association of Severe Disabilities in 1990.