Mute Rollins Valedictorian Inspires with Graduation Speech
Local News Staff 
Using text-to-speech software, Elizabeth Bonker, who has nonspeaking autism and types out what she needs to communicate, stood behind the lectern at the Winter Park campus on Monday to encourage others to use their voices as they go out into the world.
“My neuromotor issues also prevent me from tying my shoes or buttoning a shirt without assistance,” she said. “I have typed this speech with one finger with a communication partner holding a keyboard. I am one of the lucky few nonspeaking autistics who have been taught to type. That one critical intervention unlocked my mind from its silent cage enabling me to communicate and be educated like my hero Hellen Keller.”
Graduating with a degree in Social Innovation, the 24 year old thanked Rollins College for the opportinity to study and grow.
“I want to publicly thank Rollins College for taking a chance on me, for caring about every student, for being a place where kindness lives,” she said. “Dear classmates, today we commence together, but from here we will choose our own ways. For me, I have a dream. Yes, just like Martin Luther King Jr. I have a dream: communication for all. There are 31 million nonspeakers with autism in the world who are locked in the silent cage. My life will be dedicated to relieving them from suffering in silence and to giving them voices to choose their own way.”
Originally founded in Sanford in 1885, Rollins College swiftly moved to Winter Park where the institution maintains a stellar reputation as one of the finest private college's in the south.
