On le prenait pour un débile profond. On s'est rendu compte grâce à la communication assistée par ordinateur, que Birger Sellin était un être intelligent et sensible. L'écriture l'a aidé à sortir de son terrible isolement, mais il veut aller plus loin et s'intégrer dans la société.
Birger Sellin was the first functionally non-verbal person with autism to become a published author in Germany.
His first published work, largely poetry, was entitled I Don't Want to Be Inside Me Anymore: Messages from Autistic Mind and soon became translated in languages worldwide with him being a contributing author in other publications since. Birger became the centre of often volatile controversy about the use of facilitated communication as a valid form of communication for functionally non-verbal people with autism.