By Margaret Moore, PRC-Saltillo Blogger
One of the common assumptions that people make about my use of AAC is that it limits the types of activities and discussions that I participate in. They surmise that I will not want to partake in events that require me to speak for a prolonged period or compose spontaneous responses in front of an audience. On the contrary, though, I don’t mind and sign up without hesitation for public speaking opportunities. I often deliver presentations at conferences for writing and for assistive technology on disability accommodation, accessibility, and inclusion in higher education. I am also a writer currently pursuing my Master of Fine Arts degree, so reading my poetry and prose publicly is a prominent part of my career and one that I wouldn’t want to miss. My mother has always told me that my assistive technology is meant to help me achieve my desired endeavors rather than prevent me from participating, so I have learned to devise methods to participate in speaking engagements fully with my device without the preparations becoming burdensome.
On December 12th, for example, I gave a reading of my poetry and nonfiction writing on FUMFA Poets & Writers Live—the virtual reading series founded by alumni of my master’s program, Fairfield University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. The event was a holiday-themed open mic, and I shared two pieces of original writing. One was an excerpt from my memoir-in-progress about growing up with Cerebral Palsy, losing my father to stomach cancer before my second birthday, being raised with my brothers by a single mother, and participating in regular education, athletics, and extracurricular activities while relying on a motorized wheelchair, walker, and communication device. I was able to load the excerpt into my speech software through PRC’s Notebook feature, a process that I discussed in a previous article. This only took a matter of moments. The second piece that I shared was a digital humanities poem in the form of a video. This simply required that I prepare my Accent 1000 communication device with a statement to introduce the poem before it was played. I also programmed my device so that I could greet the co-hosts by name when my segment began and so that I could wish viewers a happy holiday season at the end. Additionally, I slowed my Accent’s voice down one notch for my reading to ensure that everybody could understand my device over the livestream. I was pleased with how my reading went that night. It can still be accessed on the FUMFA Poets & Writers Live YouTube Channel, Facebook Page, and Twitter feed.
I hope my experience inspires others to get involved with speaking engagements. We are given communication devices to share our thoughts with the world. Let’s take full advantage of that!
Communicators In Action - debate, speech, public speaking, aac, language, writing, accent