Tool promised to help non-verbal people - but did it manipulate them instead?

Facilitated communication was created in 1977 by Australian disability advocate Rosemary Crossley .

The method involves someone guiding the hand, arm or back of a non-verbal person, so that they can point to letters or words on a bespoke keyboard.

Advocates insist it is a miracle tool, one which gives disabled people a voice.

But growing chorus of experts, families and even former facilitators want it banned, due to research indicating that the likely author of the messages is the facilitator, not the communicator.

The debate has sparked allegations of ableism, ruined legacies and inspired a new Louis Theroux documentary.

Howard Shane , an associate professor at Harvard Medical School , has given evidence in 12 such cases.

Facilitated communication testimony from the man was ruled unreliable under New Jersey’s test for scientific evidence.

In 2015 , university professor Anna Stubblefield was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault for raping a non-verbal 33-year-old man with severe mental disabilities and cerebral palsy.

She maintains the relationship was consensual and that the two were “intellectual equals in love”.

“He was released when testing showed the allegations were false.” But facilitated communication is still practised in some specialised schools, disability centres and institutes in the USA , Europe , Australia , and Asia . Part of the reason, Prof Shane says, is that families and facilitators “believe so strongly” their child has hidden skills. “They need to accept the children for who they are - rather than what they'd like them to be.”.