My experience of ableism today. #Ableism
The more I ponder today's interaction with the phone company today, the more I realize they don't train their service people in how to deal with disability. For the second time in a year I heard "sorry, we don't deal with this very often", meaning any form of communicative disability, I think. In these instances, both were hearing related, #AuditoryProcessingDisorder #CentralAuditoryProcessingDisorder #SensoryIssues #SensoryProcessingDisorder , but today, neither the guy I "talked" to (using #AACDevice ) nor the guy he phoned had a clue what was going on, what their job was, or where to look on the computer to figure out what to do! And, now that I think about it, past the first time, the guy I dealt with didn't have the sense to call, the woman who did know what to do, over to help him again, even when she was nearby!!! Maybe he's trained not to, but seriously??!! It was an experience of utter frustration for me! Never mind sensory overload, never mind near meltdown!
I am recovering better than I would've even 8 years ago, and did when I got back in mom's car, but still... this should never have happened! If I'd have known they were going to be so difficult, I would've brought my tablet as it is louder, and has a bigger 'keyboard', but I had no idea they were so incompetent!!!
#Autism #CommunicationDisorders #Disability #DisabilityRights