#speech disability

If there are timed speaking slots, is there a way that these can be adjusted for people who stutter, or who need longer to say what they want to say?

Can you ensure that people who speak sign language and need interpreters or use AAC/similar technology to communicate can fully participate?

If you have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying, harassment, and discrimination, can you add provisions for a lack of tolerance towards discrimination against those with speech disabilities?

Even just adding 'this event strives to be accessible towards those with speech disabilities, please let us know if there is anything you need' to the description of it or to information about it can make a huge difference. Ask participants about their accessibility needs, and if they tell you something that would make it easier for them, do it. No questions asked. Because as someone with a speech disability, it is terrifying walking into a room where you are the only person who speaks differently, and where your voice and the way you speak is automatically valued less than the voices of everyone else. Where you get laughed at as soon as you open your mouth. Where people talk over you, and ask inappropriate questions, and downright ignore you whenever you try to say anything. And it shouldn't be like that. We should be able to go to events and enjoy them, and have our ideas heard.

(This also applies to things like spoken assignments for school, where speech disabled people regularly get marked down for the way they speak, as well as ordering food in shops, where we get ignored or spoken over, and the plethora of other situations where society views our speech as less important than that of people without speech disabilities)

pt: Echolalia Pride Flag /end pt

ID: a five striped flag oriented diagonally from the top left corner to the bottom right corner over a pinkish red background. The colors of the stripes are, from top to bottom, pastel pinkish red, yellowish green, greenish cyan, yellowish green and magenta-red. end PT

Echolalia: a speech disorder unsolicited repetition of vocalizations made by another person. In its profound form it is automatic and effortless. It is a subset of imitative behavior, sounds are imitated "without explicit awareness". Echolalia may be an immediate reaction to a stimulus or may be delayed.

For example, someone with echolalia might only be able to repeat a question rather than answer it.

This is a library of nonspeaking people writing, creative work, and how we share our experiences over time. The full library might be on a Google document, or merge with a toolkit others are making aim at parents of nonspeakers, or post on a separate website. I am still figuring it out! This Tumblr blog is a way for me to figure out a tag system so it is easier to sort by category. I’ll try to include an excerpt that captures the ‘meat’ of a resource in case it gets deleted or you aren’t able to access it somehow. Each resource will be posted separately and tagged with all the things it could apply to. I will have a ‘table of contents’ that lists all the tags soon. And an author and subject index.

This is a living document. Things will be added to it as I read more from my kin and as we keep showing our words and selfhoods to the world. If you have ideas for links to add to this document, please message or send a ask! It may take a while because of my disabilities and time constraints but I will get it uploaded.

A few notes

1. Not everyone I include here would describe themselves as nonspeakers. Not everyone might fit the group most usually called nonspeakers. However it mostly includes writing by nonspeaking autistic people who use partner assisted methods to communicate. That is my own experience but I am trying to add people with a bigger range of disabilities. I am using the biggest and broadest definition of nonspeaking here. It includes other groups like: minimal and unreliable speaking people, people who can use speech sometimes but not always, people who identify as nonverbal instead of nonspeaking, nonspeaking people who are not autistic, and AAC users who do not call themselves nonspeaking. I am not saying all of these experiences are the same thing but I am seeking to put them all in conversation and arrange them in mosaic over time instead of staying siloed off.

2. Some of these links will be written by people who are not nonspeaking, but I still think people should read to understand our lives. I am centering our voices, so I will tag #speaking author and tag the the role they have in our lives (parent, professional, speaking or semispeaking disabled person, researcher, ect). In order to represent people whose best communication is not through words, I will sometimes include links by parents and others who know a nonspeaking person well, who talk about their communication in deep and respectful and curious ways, not by putting it as sad or lesser. If you have issues with a resource I post that is wrote by a speaking person, please let me know.

If whumpee is a particularly defiant one they might resort to trying to bite whumper when they try to pick them up. They can't speak or scream or move or fight or run away, it's literally the only act of resistance they can put up in all their pent-up anger and frustration.

People don't understand how much anxiety comes with having a stutter. I originally shortened my name because it sounds nice, so I started going by that name more for classes and food orders. But now, most days I can't spit out my full name. I feel like I take up time, I feel guilty for wasting someone's time by having involuntary pauses and stupid filler words like "like, um, so, uh".

People wonder why I'm too shy to "just go and ask". I've become more confident but man, years of being afraid to go ask help from strangers because they'd give me feedback about my speech. I've literally had teachers go "you said like 8 times", focusing more on how I said something rather than what I said. It's frustrating. I introduce myself with having a speech impediment and communicate that I need patience and no interruptions when I talk. No I'm not done talking, I'm having a block in the middle of a word. No, I didn't forget the word, I physically can not spit out the damn word just give me a minute. I get flustered when I have terrible fluency because I'm embarrassed that I'm wasting someone else's time with a simple damn sentence.

I have verbal shut downs (due to needing vocal rest from singing or even high levels of stress/anxiety) and I am lucky to have friends and family that are so accommodating. Hours when I can not get a sound out of my throat without prolonged sounds or awkward blocks. At times I feel invalid, that this isn't a disability, but it is. There are times when I am literally unable to verbally communicate, one of the most basic, able-bodied, human things to do. It feels weird (yet still liberating) when I can order for myself with the right amount of volume and 0 stutter. It feels awkward and childish of me to still ask my parents or family to order for me because I physically can't talk or don't want to waste the waiter's time by taking 5 minutes just to order a simple damn meal.

I'm stuck between feeling great when I have high fluency moments because I can actually talk and be more independent yet invalid because I think "is this really a disability?". But then I literally can not talk for hours or even full days and switch to either signing or writing notes to communicate and that's when I'm reminded that "yeah, I am disabled."

While it sucks literally not being able to speak at times, it's validating to know that it's ok. I'm not stupid or childish. I'm pretty thankful for online ordering or kiosks because they've helped me feel more comfortable stepping out into the world and becoming less dependent on my loved ones.

Omg don't get me started on when I finally blurt out something but no one understands what I say the first time because I said it too fast so I repeat what I say and now it's a clusterchuck of stuttering like AAAA why didn't you hear me the first time???? (tho like, I get it, I've listened back to recordings and wondered wtf I've said).

(Yes, this is a headcanon that I have.)

Like, there are moments where he does talk(albeit spaced out, with a speech impediment(rhotacism specifically), awkward sounding, hushed and having certain words randomly emphasized for no reason), others where he's straight up silent while there are others where he just does random vocal noises(grunts, grumbles, muttering, quiet gibberish, cat-like noises, all that jazz) as communication.

I think he'd also be very capable of sign language, write down whatever and would also use communication cards.