I’ve spent my career helping people find their voice.
As a Houston-based speech pathologist for 33 years, a certified educator and the founder of an accessibility-focused tech company, I’ve helped nonverbal children speak for the first time, guided students with autism and ADHD toward communication breakthroughs, and supported adults with cognitive differences in finding clarity and confidence. I’ve also been a mom to two boys. One of them was my son Henry, who lived with severe medical challenges and disabilities and passed away at the age of 22. My life’s work is making sure that every person, regardless of how they process, express or interact, has a voice and is heard. Technology plays a critical role in this mission.
But the success of that mission is in danger. On Wednesday, the Texas Senate passed the House-amended Senate Bill 2420, which threatens to silence the very children and professionals I’ve spent my life supporting. The measure now moves to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
SB 2420 requires developers of all apps — regardless of the type of app or its use by children — to revamp their software to verify the age category of the user and confirm parental consent if the user is a minor. This sweeping mandate would impact every developer whose apps are available in Texas, exposing even small businesses to serious civil liability and punitive damages, regardless of the nature of their app or if it even collects personal data. It also imposes costly compliance burdens on developers, requiring them to collect age and parental data — raising serious privacy, security and logistical challenges, especially for small developers with limited resources.
In my profession, the app tools we rely on are not fringe social media platforms. They are lifelines.
Many of the children I work with, especially those with disabilities, access mobile applications under the supervision of teachers, therapists or school administrators. These professionals often need to manage apps directly on school-owned devices or within therapy environments. SB 2420 creates a massive hurdle for using these important tools.
The people relying on these apps include a nonverbal child learning to speak through an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app; a student with ADHD staying on task thanks to a visual schedule; and a therapist using a tech-based support plan with a neurodiverse teen. These are real stories. These tools exist because small, mission-driven developers build them with care, and because professionals like me know how to use them effectively.
SB 2420 won’t meaningfully improve online safety. It won’t help parents better manage what their children access. What it will do is create barriers between the people who build educational and accessibility-driven tools and the children who depend on them.
And it won’t stop there.
The burden of this bill will ripple across the app economy. Developers working on health and wellness apps, small startups building tools for families, and independent creators designing platforms for learning, behavior tracking or even basic skill-building would be swept up in vague compliance rules, high liability and impossible technical requirements. The costs and red tape would be so steep that many will simply pull their products from the market. The result? Fewer tools, fewer choices and fewer voices.
I believe the lawmakers behind this bill have good intentions. But good intentions don’t guarantee good policy, especially when the perspective of educators, developers and disability advocates are left out of the process.
When it comes to the personal safety and privacy of our children, parental oversight of online behavior is important, but we also must recognize that all apps are not created equal. If Texas truly wants to protect children, it must include the people who do that work every day. Educators. Therapists. Parents. Developers. And speech pathologists like me.
I’ve spent my life listening. To children who couldn’t speak. To families searching for support. To developers trying to make tech more inclusive. And now I’m asking Gov. Abbott to do the same and reject this bill.
Betsy Furler is the founder and CEO of For All Abilities, a Houston-area software company that supports employees with disabilities function in the workplace.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Abbott should veto bill making it harder for disabled students to access apps | Opinion
Reporting by Betsy Furler / Austin American-Statesman
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