Guest blog from @ImAnAutie
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Ever had a moment where you have something on the tip of your tongue but you canât quite think of the right words?
Think of the frustration that comes with that. Itâs unpleasant, isnât it? Now try imagining you have the exact words you want to say but you just canât because someone has Taped your mouth shut. I think we can all agree that gagging someone, preventing them from speaking, is really not an OK thing to do - Yet this is exactly what routinely happens to AAC users when people remove their access to AAC for however long it may be, it is drastically reducing their ability to communicate efficiently. Sometimes itâs as simple as not being flexible in certain procedures around electronic devices and treating AAC devices like they are toyâs (they arenât), other times itâs seemingly actively trying to silence disabled people for speaking out about certain things. People do not understand the emotional impact that comes about when someone takes your voice away from you, itâs hard to put into words but âScaryâ, âTerrifyingâ and âpainfulâ comes to mind when you have no efficient way to communicate. Contrary to the belief of some people it isnât just âplease be quiet for a bitâ but a whole ordeal that has a toll on the disabled person they just shouldnât deal with.
It makes us feel like what we have to say isnât important or valuable, we arenât welcome and canât be true to who we are. And that just sucks. Iâve had this exact situation come up a lot this year when visiting a major visitor attraction here in England with them attempting to remove my device from me, and I think it stems from a lack of understanding. Itâs taken a LOT of effort and me being a very noisy disabled to get this issue mostly resolved, but I still donât think they understand the issue, so I fully expect any of my fellow AAC users visiting this attraction to have the exact same issues. @ImAnAutie
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