CrimsonRise

08/24/2026

A dream, now built in brick and heart.

CrimsonRise — cofounded by nonspeaking spellers Nicholas D'Amora, Tejas Rao Sankar, William Jusino, and Cristofer Puleo — held its formal inaugural event, joined by Borough President Vito Fossella and Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo, together with friends and family, major donors, community leaders, and business leaders whose support makes CrimsonRise possible.

Our building now carries a name we hold close to our hearts: The Nicholas D'Amora Center, in honor of our cofounder Nicholas, whom we tragically lost. Nicholas was a powerful public speller who stood before educators and parents and won their hearts and minds — inspiring so many to embrace spelling as a form of communication and giving voice to spellers across Staten Island and beyond.

This milestone caps a remarkable season of rising:
In July, CrimsonRise Spellers were inducted into the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame as mentors who expand opportunities for the disabled — standing side by side with disability policy experts, scholars, researchers, and advocates of high standing from around the country.

We published the fifth book in our series of lesson books, well received around the world.

We returned from Motormorphosis, where spellers Max Asofsky helped open the conference on a panel and Tejas Rao Sankar delivered a keynote presentation, and Lakshmi Rao Sankar made multiple presentations.

And we've received multiple requests from speller communities to consult on replicating this first-of-its-kind model.

Today, CrimsonRise stands in a beautiful 4,000-square-foot facility — intentionally built to create the circumstances for more and more nonspeakers to rise.

08/20/2026

A persuasive case for research in communication access methodologies.

08/20/2026

A persuasive case for research in communication access methodologies.

Podcast Episode · Born to Be Free: Supporting Neurodivergent Clients to Learn, Play, & Thrive · August 5 · 44m

08/07/2026

Motormorphosis 2026! What an incredible weekend connecting with fellow practitioners, interns, and new friends! We loved spending time together, sharing ideas, and celebrating this amazing community. Thank you to everyone who stopped by at our booth. A huge shoutout to those who gave extraordinary presentations! We can’t wait to see you all again in 2027!

07/30/2026

📣 Announcement 📣 CrimsonRise is excited to announce the publication of Fabulous Themes, Vol. 2!

This valuable resource offers lessons designed for nonspeakers, their Communication and Regulation Partners (CRPs), practitioners, and parents.

Be sure to stop by our booth at Motormorphosis to pick up your copy, OR order it on Amazon using the link below.

https://a.co/d/0aIfOiN8

Get your copy today!

07/29/2026

CrimsonRise was honored to meet with Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella to share the incredible growth of our organization and our vision for the future.

During our meeting, we discussed the expansion of our programs and services, our ongoing advocacy efforts throughout New York State, and the growing impact
CrimsonRise is making across the United States and beyond. We also shared how our work is empowering nonspeaking autistic individuals through communication, education, self-advocacy, and community.

We are grateful to Borough President Fossella for his continued interest and support of CrimsonRise.

Together, we are proving that communication is a human right and that when communities presume competence, everyone has the opportunity to thrive.



Staten Island Borough President Vito J. Fossella

07/24/2026

CrimsonRise Spellers has been inducted into the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame, Class of 2026!

To be honored alongside leaders like — Emily Ladau, author of Demystifying Disability, disability policy expert Casey Doherty, Dr. Davi Kallman, and Mary Willard of NACDD — is thrilling. Still pinching ourselves.

This year's theme, Mentorship in Motion: Leading Together, is exactly what our spellers live every day: peers mentoring peers, spellers mentoring practitioners in training, allies, and organizations seeking to replicate our model — proving communication is a human right and daring the world to dream bigger with us.

To all the folks who nominated us and wrote such moving tributes of our nonspeaking leaders mentorship - thank you..



Here is a brief glimpse of the award ceremony conducted on zoom.

CrimsonRise Spellers has been inducted into the Susan M. Daniels Di...

07/13/2026

We are excited our Executive Director Lakshmi Rao Sankar will be presenting at , the International Association for Spelling as Communication's conference where the expertise of nonspeaking individuals take center stage.

This one-of-a-kind event brings together nonspeakers, advocates, educators, practitioners, researchers, families, and allies from around the world to explore the latest in communication access, motor differences, regulation, technology, policy, and Spelling to Communicate (S2C).

✨ Join our tea, on July 31–August 2 in Reston, Virginia, for three incredible days of learning, collaboration, and shaping a more inclusive future for all nonspeaking people.

Register today: https://i-asc.org/events/motormorphosis-conference/

07/08/2026

Shoutout to CrimsonRise cofounder Tejas Rao Sankar, who will be a keynote speaker alongside other nonspeaking leaders from the Nonspeaking Leadership Council at MotorMorphosis 2026, sharing their visions for the future.
Make sure to purchase your tickets if you haven’t already!!! You don’t want to miss this!

07/06/2026

It is great to be on the right side of this movement!

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/06/science/autism-assisted-spelling-nonspeaking.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Congratulations International Association for Spelling as Communication HALO Helping Autism through Learning & Outreach Elizabeth Vosseller, Soma Mukhopadhyay, Kelly Berg and all the wonderful communication access spellers, practitioners and families.

“The absence of evidence is NOT the evidence of absence”. Alexandra Woolgar, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge

Popular communication methods for nonspeaking autistic people have ignited a fierce debate over what counts as evidence of hidden cognitive abilities.