Ethics in Communication Disorders Service Delivery

Practitioners in the human communication sciences and disorders field face a diverse variety of guidelines, standards, regulations, and issues relating to ethics.

While ethics statements, codes, and guidelines determine governing principles of conduct for a profession, practitioners must be aware of at least three different domains that provide these principles of conduct. The first is the domain of codified law (legal standards) that directly dictates responsible personal or professional behavior. The second is the domain of professional ethics (standards developed by a group, association, or organization) that determines minimally responsible and acceptable behavior in the conduct of the particular profession. Finally, practitioners face the domain of morals, which dictate responsible standards of personal behavior. These include both the individual’s own standards of conduct and those set ...