The letter also stated that "overwhelming scientific evidence suggests that facilitated communication constitutes a serious violation of the individual, civil and human rights of people with disabilities, robbing them of the opportunity to communicate independently with available innovative technologies."[4][5][6][7][8][9] Proponents of the method have defended the conference.[10] The National Council Against Health Fraud released an article that was critical of the school's support of Facilitated Communication and summarized the American Speech–Language–Hearing Associations draft position on Facilitated Communication as a harmful pseudoscience.[6][11] The 2018 conference was held as scheduled, but the university withdrew its support shortly thereafter.