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A Beautiful Mind

The mind is a wild and wonderful thing. Today a lot more goes on upstairs than people realize. Many people make the mistake that because I live in a nursing home, I must also be feeble-minded. That because I speak like a five-year-old (due to dysphasia), I must also have the intelligence of one. It's frustrating and exhausting explaining and proving myself to those around me. Particularly frustrating is repeating myself three and four and five times to people who regularly care for me. Now I am not prejudiced. On the contrary, one of the greatest benefits to being in this home is my proximity to other cultures. But the people who struggle the most with my speech and care are people who speak English as a second language.It's a challenge to come up with alternate ways to describe things that you need.

Speaking of challenges, learning to use my Tobii alternate and augmentative speech (AAC) device is a doozy. I have always had a fairly easy time learning new programs and systems but I have found the I-series Tobii difficult to master by myself in a nursing home situation using just my eyes. Adjusting settings require mouse clicks, which requires fingers. My nursing home requires daily log-ins to access the wireless network and wouldn't you know every time I try to logon Tobii capitalizes the first letter which means I need to get help. Then my first challenge comes into play, find somebody who understands me. And facebook isn't much fun when you can't message your friends or view their photos or videos.

On a positive note, the Tobii has been one of my most useful tools besides my wheelchair. Keeping my mind active, giving me the means to keep in touch with family and friends, a tool to blog and visit favorite websites.

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Location: Federal Way, WA, USA

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