my own communication black out 24/7 with sound effects
In response to a blog post on unsilence and the autism "communication shutdown" on November 1st I wrote;
"the main message i got from the choosing not to be on facebook or twitter for an entire 24 hours was the absence of communication. personally speaking, it was very frustrating to be 'unable' to talk back, communicate and join in - as i understand it (having worked with some young adults with autism) this is a major disability in being part of today's society.
while the planned silence was less of a vocal campaigning for a cause, it may have made many who took part actually think about what kind of world many people do inhabit if they are limited in one way or another. not being able to rattle off my thoughts and respond to friends online was a blow to my 24 hours - it was a personal journey, and it did bring home to me how disabling "not being the norm" is.
coincidentally, i also spent a lot of the 24 hours reflecting on how my own unilateral deafness and allied tinnitus 'excludes' me from some aspects of daily life and discourages me from reaching out within my community. i've written of the woes of my extremely small support network and complete crapness at making friends - though not completely the cause, the deafness precludes a lot of social interactions. it's minor compared with more severe forms of communication disability - more of a taster of what some people go through on a daily basis, without or without voluntary days of silence.
there are many different ways of advocating, a eliciting
the 24 hours communication black out was one of these and I think very powerful"
The day provoked a lot of "respectful disagreement" (thanks to professor mother for that summation) and then some.
PS: go get your flu shots - deafness is a not infrequent complication of viral infection
