Here is my history in communicating. I received my first communication aid when I was 6 years old. It was called a bliss board. My speech-language therapist taught me Blissymbols, visual-graphic symbols that represent words. The Blissymbols were laid out on a board in categories such as verbs, prepositions, adjectives, and nouns. The board was made of cardboard and had a plastic covering with a yellow bag. (Yes yellow bag, not very good for my image) Symbols were pasted on the cardboard and had the equivalent English words above the symbol.
The bliss board did not really work in the real world. By ten years old I gave up on using it, as it was too much hard work. My closed friends could understand me so the teachers used to ask my friends to translate what I was saying.
The one advatage is you can have a gossip to a friend without anyone else understanding me.
It was frustaining sometimes when no one was there to translate for me. I used to say forget it!! When I was 15 years old I received a light talker. It was the first voice synthesizer augmentative communication devices' had, and it was not very clear. The light talker allowed me to pre-program messages under icon sequences.
For instance, pressing a key with \"drink icon\" in it, followed by a key with an icon of a pointing-finger on it, might result in the retrieval of the sentence \"Please will you go to the bar?\" Whereas \"drink icon\" plus a person icon might retrieve \"Do you want a drink?\"
Without my light talker I wouldn't be able to do many things. I don't think I would have got on as well at college, as I didn't have any friends coming with me.
The light talker was a valuable tool for socializing. For the first few years at college I learnt more outside the class room by socializing. It was like going into a new world.
The light talker has made me much more independent as I can order take ways. (very important) I used to always to go into the pizza shop, as it was easy access to get into. They would get the money out of my pocket after I had typed in the order. Then they would put the food in the bag and hang it on my wheelchair.
As you can see I am much more independent with the light talker. I really needed a new one as after finishing at university I decided to set-up my own web design business called Technowebs.co.uk Therefore when I am meeting my new clients I rely on my talker. Three years ago I tried getting a new up to date model from the NHS, as my talker was 12 years old. Well, let's just say I am still waiting. Now I know why people are still using bliss boards, as it is really hard to obtain a talker from the NHS.
On the NHS a person can received hearing aids, glasses, special shoes, wheelchairs/sticks, etc…. So why not provide a speech synthesiser? I think speech synthesisers are essential to a person who requires them. If a person was hard of hearing and also had a very poor speech, he/she would obtain a hearing aide to allow the person to help hear people talk to him/her, but he would find it very hard to reply back without a speech synthesiser!
The speech synthesiser is important and essential to the quality of a person's life, so I think it should be free on the NHS as it's an aid for communicating!
