#nonspeakers

[anautistic]

TikTok from Heathar Barrett (@heatharvisits) showing one of her first communication devices, the Canon Communicator from 1974.

[nonspeakingkiku]

Kiku is working on a post about nonspeakers and how we are perceived by different groups of people, its very slow and brain refuses to type about it so Kiku writing it with Proloquo2go. Have so many thoughts/feelings/ect about this topic, but having an increadibly hard time getting them out. Not exactly sure why. Maybe related to peoples expectations, and Kiku feeling isn't a good writer, and a little bit of Kiku's self esteem issues/negative feelings toward self/imposter syndrome.

But also aphasia maybe. Getting words out, in a way that makes sense to other people and match what want to say is very hard.

But Kiku is working on it. People expect nonspeakers and spellers to be poetic, full of prose and fancy words, and everything they say/spell is eloquent and wel thought out. Kiku is not that, Kiku is crass, and often times vulgar, writing full of spelling errors and replacement words.

But people seem to really like to hear Kiku's words. So Kiku is trying. And Kiku wants to advocate for this community because it is so important to Kiku. Kiku went without reliable communication for too long not to advocate for other nonspeakers, so they don't have to go without a method of communication, no matter what it may be.

What prompted Kiku to make this post is Kiku got called a leader in he nonspeaking community, and Kiku is struggling with that a bit.

Because Kiku has never viewed self as a leader, but then Kiku realised, maybe Kiku is. Kiku advocates for this community, provides information about communication methods, and feels strongly about other nonspeakers and the people who love and care for them, and Kiku's social medias are getting bigger, more people follow Kiku every day, some of them bigger blogs/pages.

Kiku never expected people to listen to Kiku if honest, this was all for Kiku, and still is, but Kiku also shares things from other nonspeakers and shares information and its important. Kiku never expected this.

But Kiku is glad people like Kiku's content and listen because Kiku feels the thing Kiku says are important.

And Kiku will admit that Kiku is different from other nonspeakers, because Kiku can appear to have a lot of speech on a high unreliable speech day, and Kiku struggles with this a bit. But Kiku stands by calling self a nonspeaker, nonspeaking, nonverbal, minmally speaking, all the words Kiku uses.

Because speech is not Kiku's main method of communication and it most often what comes out of Kiku's mouth is not what Kiku wants to say. And Kiku couldn't communicate much until Kiku was 15, but Kiku didn't know that very well or why. But because of how Kiku grew up, thinking was verbal, Kiku struggles with imposter syndrome.

This got much longer than Kiu though. Oops. Kind of a ramble. 😅

[bookquotesfrombooks]

“My right to self-determination includes the right to make bad choices sometimes.”

Cole Sorenson

“And Why Would We Do This?”

Published in I Will Die On This Hill

[higheverweave]

We ____ who speak for disabled folks asked parents/ family of Disabeld folks who speak for disabled folks

Rather than giving disabled people every possible accommodation to let them communicate themselves body language

yes no blinking questions

Typing based communication

You don’t do this with any other marginalized population

It’s weird you do it to us and you don’t even see it.

Especially disability where they can use sanity or intelligence as an excuse to shut our thoughts down.

👏NO👏

I’m so tired.

[neuroclastic]

Open Letter to Young Autistics from a Nonspeaker

Trevor Byrd is a NeuroClastic audience favorite and nonspeaking teen advocate. He pens a letter to young autistics to let them know they're not alone.

Dear Little Autistic Learners,Be Strong. You have no idea how brilliant you are yet. Have faith in your family to lead you out of the darkness. Children all over the world also are autistic, and it’s not just you. Don’t think you’re alone in your head. There are so many children out there who are struggling, too. You will come out on the other side with more understanding of how you fit in this…

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[bookquotesfrombooks]

“I can’t really imagine myself as not having autism because the “Myself” I’d be wouldn’t be the same Myself that I am now. A Me Without Autism, even one who looked exactly the same, would have an entirely different set of ideas and way of looking at the world.”

Naoki Higashida

Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8

[neuroclastic]

The Autistic Boy Who Became Typical

The Autistic Boy Who Became Typical

Many times as a nonspeaking autistic I was angry because I wasn’t like everyone else. Time has enabled me to be proud of my autistic self. Yes, life has its challenges, but doesn’t everyone else have challenges, too? The autistic boy wanted to be like everyone else. He wanted to be able to talk to his friends, drive a car, and have people realize how smart he was. He was envious of others…

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[anautistic]

This video is a collection of selected readings from Barb Rentenbach's 2012 book, I Might Be You: An Exploration of Autism and Connection.