I want to talk about grammar on AAC.

Using proper grammar can make it a lot easier for people to understand what you mean, but sometimes, it can be difficult for us to use proper grammar when using AAC. The limited space and time on our devices can make it challenging to construct grammatically correct sentences. And let's be real, typing out every single word and punctuation mark can be time-consuming and exhausting.

I understand that grammar is important. However, I wish that people would recognize that difficulty with grammar doesn't diminish the value or the validity of AAC user's (or anyones) thoughts and opinions.

I personally don't tend to struggle with it, and I've always been skilled in both reading and writing. This gives me privilege, because when I share my experiences and thoughts as a nonspeaking autistic with high support needs, people listen. I've noticed that when its other people like me, but they struggle with grammar, the post gets so few notes and nobody listens.

This isn't okay.

I have learned so much from people that type in more simple or ungrammatical ways, and I guarantee you could too.

Stop skipping over AAC user's who don't have perfect grammar.

And anyone with any form of "incorrect" speech tbh. It's not only ableism but also racism and xenophobia. Not everyone has English as their first language and to be able to speak it at all is a huge accomplishment, even if words are out of order or incorrect. It's important to realise that AAC users, people with limited speech, and non-english speakers, go to a HUGE effort to try and communicate with us, and so we should put just as much effort in to try and understand what was said.

It’s even worse for people like who have difficulty speaking, use aac, and don’t speak English as a first language. I found it to be a special kind of hell because asshole therapists would literally nitpick the fuck out of my speech. Even if I were American, it’s still shitty to do that to a kid. As a young child learning English, this type of behavior didn’t exactly encourage me to speak English - especially when I got alternatives in communication cards, signed language (and later ASL in high school), and writing down what I wish to communicate.

Basically, I still have trouble speaking to this day because of asshat therapists.