Discovering Communication

Michael B. Williams uses a speech generating device in a clip from "How Far We've Come, How Far We've Got To Go: Tales From the AAC Trenches". Full video streamed at http://aac-rerc.psu.edu/index_Williams.html

Have I told you yet how I communicated with people during this phase of my life?

I learned early on, that idle social banter, the verbal caffiene that fuels most societal interaction

was an activity in which I could not easily participate.

Social nicieties, like jokes and juicy gossip, were swept under my mental carpet so that I could focus

on conveying what I considered to be the really important thoughts in my mind.

I did this using the most laborious method possible.

I drew the letters of each word in the air with my finger while I [?] blink, blink, and [the listener] performed all manner of mental gyrations

trying to figure out the hell what I was saying.

My really really important thoughts were typed on my manual typewriter at home,

carried to the place of conversation and presented to my listeners with the gravest solemnity, as if they were the 10 commandments.

Needless to say, with communication methods such as these, one has few friends.