ONE VOICE

I was born with a speech impediment, so my one God given voice was hard to understand.  Because of this, people around me thought that I couldn't understand things.  So many people shared that same opinion that to me it started to seem like one voice.

When I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, it seemed like one voice held the key to giving me a chance at an education.  One voice out of so many people, how could this be?  But I was sent to a special school where all the teachers and staff saw us as just regular kids and their one voice sent a message that let us all know that no dream was beyond our reach, and they all had nothing but high expectations for us.

Graduating from grade school and going into high school was a big wake up call.  I had to be that one voice that now taught all the new teachers around me that I was no different.  But the voice of not having the equipment I needed maid it seem like I couldn't do the work.  A typewriter was not allowed in the classroom, I couldn't tell my aid answers to a test because it would give the answer to everyone in the class, the workload was too great for me to keep up, and I slowly got depressed.  But one voice of hope inside of me kept telling me not to give up.

I finally got a communication device, it was one voice that everyone could understand.  It could not only talk, but it could be programmed to sing.  With great excitement I thought I was free.  I learned how to use it and proudly went out into the world to use my one voice.  Starting with ordering a basic hamburger a voice spoke back asking “He wants a hamburger”?  The question wasn't to me, but to the person I was with as if to ask permission to take my order.  It's not always verbal, sometimes it's a look, a smile, a gesture, and they always think that I have no idea what they just asked, but I know.  Spoken or not I know that one voice that always asked if I'm my own guardian, or if I can make my own decisions.

One voice wrote this story, and when read aloud it is heard by one voice.  You the listener might think the person reading this also wrote this.  You might also feel how much power is behind one voice.  Through AAC, we now have one voice to communicate with.  But now we need to make it known that our one voice has equal authority.  We all need to unite as one voice to educate the public so that when alone people will listen to our one voice.