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friendly reminder that it’s not ok to mock how high tech AAC sounds

I Know it pronounces stuff weird sometimes and I Know it sounds robotic you don’t have to tell me. I know. some of us are hyper aware of it. stop pointing out shit we have no control over.

it’s mean to make fun of how somebody speaks verbally and it’s mean to mock somebody speaking with technology. don’t do it.

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Julia (from Sesame Street) fanart!

[Plain Text: Julia (from Sesame Street) fanart! End Plain text]

As some of you may know, i am a julia fictionkin! So this is more like a kinsona but it does look pretty accurate to julia's canon appearance so idk but i love how it turned out :3

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Strange trans lifehack that I stumbled into:

For years I went by a shortened version of my legal name, which was generally considered to be a masculine name. People gave me endless grief for this. It was too much work to remember, compared to my legal name. It was just so hard to remember that I spelled it the normal masc way that people spelled that nickname, and not a femme-ified Tragideigh alternate spelling. It wasn’t even that different from my legal name anyway, so what was the big deal with people just using my legal name? Why was I being so difficult?

Then I legally changed my name to something ethnic and tricky to pronounce, with the exact same shortened nickname.

Now every time I tell people “oh, you can just call me x” I can hear the palpable relief in their voice as they do so. Overnight, my nickname turned from a concession to me into a concession to them. I instantly went from difficult to magnanimous – I’ve had people thank me for going by the same name I’ve been going by and getting grief for for well over a decade.

I guess sometimes the solution to “remembering your preferred name is too hard” is just to put the fear of god in ‘em. Oh, you think this incredibly common name that just happens to be a different gender is hard? Nah, I’ll show you hard. How about every time a stranger complains that remembering a preferred name in addition to what’s on my paperwork is too complicated, I add another phoneme that doesn’t exist in English to my legal one. Choke on that, lol.

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I've made silly beam emojis (intended for discord but. Yknow, free for whatever). Beams to fire at your friends to turn them alterhuman or.. Something! Some of these are a little crudely done but this is because I'm being silly with it. Enjoy, creatures!

In order, we have:

Alterhuman, using the alterhuman flag colours (by gh0stspxce) + the alt key.

Otherkin, using the nonhuman unity flag colours + the elven star.

Therian, using the nonhuman unity flag colours + the theta delta.

Otherhearted, using one of the otherhearted flags and the diamond heart symbol.

Otherlink, using one of the otherlink flags (darkened for visibility) and the diamond link symbol.

Plural, using one of the many plural pride flags and the plural rings.

Soulbond(er), using one of the soulbonding flags and the symbol by lunar-solstice-plur.

Soulbond(er)s who are in a relationship with their soulbond(er)s, using the same flag and the symbol by lunar-solstice-plur.

Terrorpunk, using the terrorpunk symbol and its colours by. Us!

Will I make more? Maybe. Perhaps. It really depends on motivation more than anything. But have fun with these in the meantime.

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What is this?

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.

3. Please do not use my resources to argue about labels for different communication disabilities. Please do not use it to argue about what the people I post from call themselves, whether it is right or not. I will not be hosting any debates here.

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Caregiver brought me new case, with handles and built in stand, super accessible for me, I also made communication cards as a folder, 1x1 and can scroll, made communication cards for meltdowns and shutdowns and advocacy because sometimes my device can be too fast for people to listen, and im gonna make accessible ones for my caregiver because he struggles with reading and hearing

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I like the second not about grammar because we are someone with good mastery of language. We can speak eloquently and complexly and thus language is one of our main masking skills and a sort of crutch for us. But it is tiring, so tiring to talk and write in such a complex way all the time. It wasn’t until we entered AAC spaces that we saw people using alternative in such a normalised way. It has been so freeing to take off part of our mask and not think so hard about our language. Also the feeling that we had to muse perfect grammar and language all the time kept of from being active online even when tired. It still something we’re working on, but things like this AAC community has given us is why we love it so much

do you like think its not obvious that you have absolutely fine in fact very good grammar and vocabulary and comprehension of complex sociopolitical concepts (not to mention esoteric tumblr discourses) but affect a stilted ungrammatical baby "no do this, me don't get it" tone to give an air of being more developmentally disabled than you are when it suits you? Like people notice and can tell. the contrast between your pinned post and so many of your other posts is wild for example. I dont for one instant read your other posts and then believe that "no fake claim me" in ur pinned is a sentence you like organically wrote lol. "politics and conflict make me confused" is also just so laughable given that again you have full clear comprehension of the complexities and contexts of like every facet of fucking tumblr system discourse and complex real world political movements like anti-psych and prison abolition and many many current issues that affect you and have to ability to post very eloquently and frequently about those things with flawless grammar and vocab like. Lol please stop putting on the "me no like me no understand" cosplay and trying to act like thats your normal when that is so SO clearly not how you organically speak or process. its not cutesy its weird and creepy towards people who legitimately do have their grammar and vocabulary limited in that way and arent just choosing to imitate it only when it suits them. I may as well start deliberately posting in a way that implies Im a wheelchair user when Im not!

hello officer, can i help you?

i hope something good happens to you today!

chrome

psa for everyone else - my grammar fluctuates depending on whether i use my aac or keyboard to type. i wrote my pinned post with symbol based aac, but usually type longer posts on my computer. i can speak with nuance on anti-psychiatry (and because it directly is impacted by it, syscourse) because it is something i have experienced and been affected by personally. i still struggle to read most news articles and need them explained to me in simple language.

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Elias: you really wanna bring up qualifications Martin KfakeCV Blackwood?

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sometimes i say “i think” but actually i know. on account of being the knower.

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Jonny and Alex are in their writers room poking us with sticks, saying “How would they react if we did this?”

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I finished keyboard Page, this page is 5x9, the rest of it is still 3x5, it is colour coded for motor planning

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put stickers on my aac device! featuring a couple toys i got on thursday and a lamb i thrifted & named flock!

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I took my little brother (autistic, mostly non verbal) out and he was using his voice keyboard to tell me something, and this little boy (maybe 4 or 5?) heard him and asked me "Is he a robot??" I tried to explain to him that no, he isn't a robot, he just communicates differently, but my darling brother was in the background max volume "I am robot I am robot I am robot I am robot"

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Hi! Where did you make the green AAC cards that you posted? I want to do mine in Brazilian Portuguese and I want to be able to translate it. Many thanks!

I made mine on procreate! Then I printed them and my schools library people laminated them for me