Yes, well, what can I say? Actually, I can say that getting the bus was nowhere near the hassle I was expecting! I had three tickets to buy this week, all returns, and I actually think I get them bought faster with the communicator than I would have normally. It makes the whole process a lot more efficient.
Bus driver 1; was by far the best! I was struggling to handle my purse and the communicator at the same time and he made friendly chat with me while I entered my message. It was taking a little longer than I'd hoped, so I showed him the screen so he could see what I was doing and as I'd written "Can I have a return to " he asked "Cheltenham?" and I nodded enthusiastically. He made a comment about how hectic Monday mornings are and how these things seem to want Monday mornings in bed like the rest of us, and gave me my ticket and change with a smile. He didn't even talk slower or add uneccessary geture! So a MASSIVE KUDOS to the driver of the 6.40am number 46 from Stroud to Cheltenham on Monday 17th! For making me feel at ease, not even slightly like I was an inconvenience and for a smooth, on-time ride, too (and he was working so early on a Monday)!
Bus driver 2; was generally polite but seemed a little confused as to what I was trying to do, and I got the feeling he thought maybe I was being a bit lazy showing him a message on a palmtop PC (I used the display method on my morning buses as a lot of people snooze on the ride and I didn't want to disturb them!) rather than speaking it out loud, he didn't seem to realise it would have been much easier for me to speak it!
Bus driver 3; was generally polite and patient but assumed (like a lady in WHSmith the previous day) that I was deaf and mouthed "Thank you" with a thumbs up gesture when I gave her my fare. This made me a bit uncomfortable, but at least she wasn't patronising.
So it's our last day!!! Thank goodness!!!!! I will be so glad to be able to be myself again. I think really it wasn't the different way of communicating that got to me so much, as I could still get my message accross, it was more that I wasn't being myself. Our identities are so wrapped up in things like this, and this is why continuing development of synthetic voices and more efficient communicators is essential. The voice a person uses on a communication aid becomes their voice and part of their personality, and the way they use their communication aid is the way they communicate.
One thing that has gotten to me is how people around college kept saying hi, and when I waved back, some of them would say "Oh, you're still on your silence!", that shows quite a poor attitude towards communication-aids if they thought I was doing a sponsored silence!!! Either that, or they didn't read the multiple e-mails I sent around college to explain what we're doing, or they just assumed that because I didn't get out my communicator in those brief encounters and they'd heard something about us not speaking that it must be a sponsored silence.
Signing off for now!
Lucy
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