while me post most about nonverbal nonspeaking because intellectual/developmental disabilities, here something about become nonspeaking after/because medical crisis in 2022 & tracheotomy & muscular dystrophy, by alice wong.
The Passy Muir® Valve was created by a disabled man to enable people like activist Alice Wong, who have experienced tracheostomies or are ve
overview: “This is a 2-3 minute audio letter to the late David Muir, a disabled man who invented the Passy Muir® Valve, an attachment that enables people with tracheostomies to speak. As a newly nonspeaking person, this letter allows me to share my thoughts on the desire to speak and reflections on silence.”
I paused to consider the phrase “dignity through speech.” There is dignity in silence too. Silence does not mean a person is voiceless, as there are millions of nonspeaking people who use gestures, sign language, writing, technology, and other means to communicate with the world.
I live in a world of silence that is not lesser or devoid of richness. My reality is just different. Silence forces me to be more thoughtful and intentional in considering what I want to say and how I say it when I type into my speech-to-text app, which listeners to this letter are hearing now.
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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.
