Betty Yu is a Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and a managing co-editor of the Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability. Her research and clinical interests are in how communication access among racially-minoritized, disabled children in multilingual communities are shaped by institutional practices/policies, family socialization, and dominant ideologies about race/language/disability. She has investigated the communication and socialization experiences of autistic children in Bay Area Chinese communities as they and their families interact with disability services, school systems, and healthcare. Another strand of her work focuses on issues of equity in the field of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS), particularly the systemic influences of raciolinguistic discrimination, ableism and pathologization. 

She employs different empirical methods including discourse analysis, conversation analysis, phenomenological interviewing, and ethnography. She is a member of the Conversation Analysis Research in Autism (CARA) research group. She teaches courses related to child language development, social communication development, culturally and linguistically responsive practices and counseling in the speech-language-hearing sciences. She is the co-director of Project ASCEND, a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education to prepare speech-language therapists to support communication access for autistic students who are non-speaking, minimally speaking, or who prefer not to speak. She is a advisory board member to the Asian Pacific Islander Speech-Langugage-Hearing Caucus. 

Educational Background

• University of California at Berkeley/San Francisco State University, 2009, Ph.D. Special Education
• New York University, 1999, M.A. Speech-Language Pathology
• University of California at Berkeley, 1996, B.A. Linguistics

Certification and Licenses

• Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 1999-present
• California State License in Speech and Language Pathology, Speech Language and Audiology Licensing Board, 1999-present
• Hanen certified speech-language pathologist for “It Takes Two to Talk”, “More Than Words” and “Talkability”

Media

• Code Switch: Lost in Translation (August 3, 2022). (Starting 17:18) We follow a family who was advised to stop speaking their heritage language, Japanese, based on some outdated and incomplte research.
• Deconstructing bi multilingualism, social communication, and autistic sociality with a focus on clinical application. Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism at the University of Reading
• Different Lenses on Accent Modification. ASHA Voices Podcast. November 11, 2021. https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/2021-1111-podcast-different-lens-accent-modification/full/
• Does Accent Modification Do More Harm Than Good? (1 hour talk vieweable at https://youtu.be/3W3NN42H2YI. Sponsored by the Asian Pacific Islander Speech-Langugage-Hearing Caucus Speaker Series, December 2020.
• For Children with Autism, Multiple Languages May Be a Boon (by Ann Griswold, Spectrum, reprinted in Scientific American (July 26, 2016). 
  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/for-children-with-autism-multiple-languages-may-be-a-boon/
• Language Barriers or Boosters? Autism Spectrum Researchers Take Aim at a Multilingual Myth
  By Steve Hockensmith, SF State Magazine (Fall/Winter 2016)
  http://magazine.sfsu.edu/archive/fall-16/language-barriers-or-boosters

Publications

• Yu, B., Brea-Spahn, M. R., & Nair, V. K. K. (2025). Accent for sale: The collusion of racism and ableism in the marketplace of pathologized speech. In O. Robinson, E. Moriarty, & J. Henner (Eds.), The crip linguistics reader (p. 137-154). Gallaudet University Press. 
• Bottema-Beutel, K. Zisk, A. H., Zimmerman, J. & Yu, B. (2025). Conceptualizing and describing autistic language: Moving on from ‘verbal’,‘minimally verbal’and ‘nonverbal’. Journal of Autism, 29(6), 1367-1373. 
• Bottema-Beutel et al. (2025). Recognizing and resisting ableist language in schools: Suggestions for school-based speech-language pathologists and related professionals. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 55(4), 10225-1038. 
• Nair, V. K. K., Brea-Spahn, M. R., & Yu, B. (2024). Decolonizing speech language "pathology": Critical foundational concepts for research, pedagogy and praxis. Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability, 2(2), 71-95. 
• Yu, B., & Chen, R. (2024). Social Communication and Language Development in Autistic Learners. In K. Dunn Buron & P. Wolfberg (Eds.), Learners on the autism spectrum: Preparing highly qualified educators and related practitioners (p. 173-190). Routledge. (Book preview)
• Natri, H. M., Abubakare, O., Asasumasu, K., Basargekar, A., Beaud, F., Botha, M., ... & Zisk, A. H. (2023). Anti‐ableist language is fully compatible with high‐quality autism research: Response to S inger et al.(2023). Autism Research, 16(4), 673-676. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aur.2928
• Nair, V. K. K., Khamis, R., Ali, S., Aveledo, F., Biedermann, B., Blake, O., ... & Zisk, A. H. (2023). Accent modification as a raciolinguistic ideology: a commentary in response to Burda et al.(2022). Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability, 1(1), 105-112. https://doi.org/10.48516/jcscd_2023vol1iss1.21
• Hyter, Y. D., Yu, B., & Khamis, R. (2023). Editorial Introduction: Critical Theory is for Such a Time as This. Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability, 1(2), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.48516/jcscd_2023vol1iss2.31
• Yu, B. & Sterponi, L. (2023). Towards Neurodiversity: How Conversation Analysis Can Contribute to a New Approach to Social Communication Assessment. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 54(1), 27-41 https://pubs.asha.org/doi/abs/10.1044/2022_LSHSS-22-00041
• Horton, R., Munoz, M., Khamis, R., Munson, B., Yu, B., Johnson, V. E., & Hyter, Y. (2023). " Outsider Within": Lessons Learned about SLHS and Race Scholarship. Journal of Critical Study of Communication & Disability, 1(1), 69-87. https://doi.org/10.48516/jcscd_2023vol1iss1.1
• Barnes, C. A., Khamis, R., Hyter, Y. D., & Yu, B. (2023). Guest Post - In Defense of Endogeny. The Scholarly Kitchen. https://doi.org/10.48516/004507
• Sterponi, L. & Yu, B. (2022) Neurodiversity. In A. Church & A. Bateman (Eds.) Talking with Children: A Handbook for Early Childhood Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Khamis, R., Hyter, Y., Yu, B., Abrahams, K., Cioè-Peña, M., Erevelles, N., ... & Pillay, M. (2023). Editorial introduction to the inaugural issue. Journal of Critical Study of Communication & Disability, 1(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.48516/jcscd_2023vol1iss1.22
• Yu, B., Nair, V. K., Brea, M. R., Soto-Boykin, X., Privette, C., Sun, L., Khamis, R., Chiou, H. S., Fabiaon-Smith, L., Epstein, L. & Hyter, Y. D. (2022) Gaps in Framing and Naming: Commentary to “A Viewpoint on Accent Services”. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. doi:doi:10.1044/2022_AJSLP-22-00060. Open Access: https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2022_AJSLP-22-00060
• Yu, B., Horton, R., Munson, B., Newkirk-Turker, B. L., Johnson, V. E., Khamis-Dakwar, R., Muñoz, M. L., Hyter, Y. (2021). Making Race Visible in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences: A Critical Discourse Analysis. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
• Yu, B., Epstein, L., Tisi, V. (2021) A DisCrit-Informed Critique of the Difference Versus Disorder Approach in Speech-Language Pathology. In R. Horton (Ed.) Critical Perspectives on Social Justice in Speech-Language Pathology. IGI Global.
• Kim, H., Ruppar, A., Baker, D., Kim, S. & Yu, B. (2020). Interweaving Disentangled: Korean American Students with Autism go to College. Race, Ethnicity and Education 26(7), 892-913.
• Langdon, H., Seung, H., & Yu, B. (2019). One or two languages for children on the autism spectrum? Logopaedica Lodziensia, 3, 117-124. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/2544-7238.03.08
• Yu, B. & Luo, F. (2019). Augmentative and alternative communication. In G. Hao & Z. Shao (Eds.), Autism spectrum disorders: Assessment and intervention. Chongqing, China: Chongqing Publishing Group. (Published in Chinese)
• Yu, B., & Hsia, S. (2018). Inclusion of heritage language learners on the autism spectrum: Lessons from second-generation parents. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 0(0). doi:doi:10.1111/ijal.12233
• Kashinath, S., & Yu, B. (2018). Embedding intervention strategies within everyday family routines. In M. Siller & L. J. Morgan (Eds.), Handbook of Family-Centered Practice for Very Young Children with Autism. New York: Springer.
• Epstein, L., Solomon-Rice, P., & Yu, B. (2018). Speech/Language Impairments and Communication Disorders. In Y. Bui & E. L. Meyen (Eds.), Exceptional children in today's schools: What teachers need to know. 5th Edition
• Yu, B. (2016). Bilingualism as Conceptualized and Bilingualism as Lived: A Critical Examination of the Monolingual Socialization of a Child with Autism in a Bilingual Family. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2625-0.
• Yu, B. (2016). Code-switching as a communicative resource within routine, bilingual family interactions for a child on the autism spectrum. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 1(14), 17-28.
• Soto, G., & Yu, B. (2014). Considerations for the provision of services to bilingual children who use augmentative and alternative communication. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 30(1), 83-92. doi:10.3109/07434618.2013.878751
• Yu, B. (2013). Issues in bilingualism and heritage language maintenance: Perspectives of minority-language mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders.American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22(1), 10-24.
• Solomon-Rice, P. & Yu, B. (2012). ASHA Certified Speech-Language Pathologists Pursuing Doctoral Degrees in Related Areas: An Untapped Doctoral Shortage Resource?Perspectives on Issues in Higher Education, 15(2), 53-58.
• Yu, B. & Epstein, L. (2011). Facilitating critical reflections about disability among students in speech-language pathology.Perspectives on Issues in Higher Education,14, 11-20.
• Yu, B. & Kashinath, S. (2011). Family-centered care and other labors of love: Culturally competent service delivery for young children and their families.CSHA Magazine, 41(1), 12-13.
• Yu, B. (2010). Achieving cultural reciprocity in early intervention through a recommitment to family-centered care.CSHA Magazine, 40(1), 8-9.
• Epstein, L., Nazario, A., & Yu, B. (2009). Evaluation of evidence in evidence-based practice and how library science can help.Perspectives on Issues in Higher Education, 12(1), 32-41.
• Soto, G., Yu, B., Morton, J. (2008). Effectiveness of multifaceted narrative intervention on the stories told by a 12-year old girl who uses AAC.Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 24(1), 76-87.
• Soto, G., Yu, B., Henneberry, S. (2006). Supporting the development of narrative skills of an eight-year old child who uses an augmentative and alternative communication device.Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 23(1), 27-45.

Websites:

Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Website, Twitter