This is a raw conversation with no edits between mum, dad and me at breakfast yesterday. I am a Nonspeaker who spells to communicate using a letterboard.
Mum: How are you today, Patrick?
Patrick: I am happy because I am excited about life. My life has meaning.
Dad: How did you feel before you could spell?
Patrick: Sad and isolated because I couldn't get my Autism to work for me and I couldn't purposefully point at a letterboard to communicate. The letterboard has changed my life and I can now ask questions and find out answers and get my needs and wants met and learn and request and make choices and have conversations and make friends and be heard and respected and people now see me and presume competence and are able to have conversations with me and are able to accommodate me and can make better decisions to support me and are able to form a relationship with me and I get to have fun. You asked.
Image: Patrick walking in a riverbed in the Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, Canada.
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