The Passy Muir® Valve was designed to help people with tracheostomies, like me.
“Even if I could have used your valve, though, I knew my voice would never be the same. It seems there’s nothing else I can do but live with this new reality of mine. I was born disabled, but my disability identity has changed radically. I’m now part of the community of nonspeaking people and people who cannot swallow or eat solids. It’s another part of the ever-expanding disabled multiverse within which I leapfrog back and forth.
The worlds of speech and silence intersect and overlap. Silence isn’t static or limiting. Silence is not an empty void. Silence has a landscape of its own. Silence has its own dimension, a space that enables another way of thinking and being. There is dignity in all forms of communicating.”