verbal communications difficulties and assistive technology update

I had written a blog about assistive technology for verbal communications difficulties. Here is an update on my project as well as some real world experience I have gotten with my devices.

As I said in my previous post on the subject, I started playing around with text to speech software on my PDA. I recently upgraded my PDA to the palm zire 72. It has a better speaker than my old PDA. The sound is louder, unfortunately the volume isn't high enough for some situations. So I ended up getting these(the ones on the right) small battery powered speakers to use. I picked them up at biglots for $10. The sound quality and volume on the speakers is wonderful. The only real downside is the size and configuration of the speakers. I ended up putting a strip of velcro on the back of the speakers and the back of my leather PDA case. The setup works, but is a little cumbersome. I am tempted to take the speakers apart and repackage them with only one speaker rather than 2. This shouldn't be to hard to do since I know my way around a soldering iron and such. But, one of my goals with this project is to come up with a configuration that is reasonably cheap and easy to implement. Many people may not feel comfortable (or have the knowledge/skill) taking apart electronic gizmos.

So my next task is to find speakers that work well right out of the package. So far I have a few in mind to try out. The speakers on the left on the above linked photo, seem worth a shot. They have them at wallgreens for $10. I also, found this mini speaker. I am not sure how good the sound output is on it, but the size and configuration is right on, and at $10 the price is right. I have also seen some cheap cylindrical speakers that plug right into the headphone jack. I will probably give those a try too.

I have gotten some real world experience using my PDA as a communications device. The main problem is imputing text on the fly. It's a bit slow. For this reason I have some bits of text pre-written and ready to go. I have one blurb of text that explains that I have autism and am having difficulties with verbal speech. This way the person knows that I will be communicating with my PDA. Although I can't input text as fast as I can by typing, the portability of the setup makes up for it. I always carry my PDA with me, so I now always have a way to communicate when I have difficulties with verbal speech.

In addition to my PDA I have also been playing around with text to speech on my laptop. I downloaded ReadPlease free text to speech software. The software works quite well. The voice is clear and you can adjust the speed at which it speaks. I also like the fact that you can download voices in other languages. I am bilingual (English/Spanish), so I downloaded some voices in Spanish. For free software it is quite good and worth checking out. It might also be useful for people with reading difficulties.

I recently had a chance to use the text to speech software in the real world. I had an appointment at the social security office to apply for social security disability. I figured that my anxiety would be elevated and I tend to have speech problems when under anxiety, so I took my laptop with me. First thing I did when I sat down to talk with the person, was to ask if it was ok if I turned on my laptop. The speakers on my laptop suck, so I used my portable speakers that I mentioned above. I am so glad I had my laptop with me. Initially I was able to answer the questions just fine using verbal speech. But at one point I was asked a question that made my anxiety rise. As I started to answer I began to have great difficulties getting the words out, so I started typing. Everything worked smoothly. The only real annoyance was early on before I started using my laptop, the social security person made some comment about how I was able to speak just fine. Well, yea I can speak just fine most of the time. But I can't do that all of the time, other wise I wouldn't have had my laptop with me! GRRR. Stupid people! This makes me think of a YouTube video I saw. It was a video by a woman with bad arthritis in both knees. She was talking about how she uses a wheelchair. She doesn't need it all the time, just mainly for longer distances. In the video she talked about how she was going to go to her brothers graduation. The even would be in 2 different buildings about 2 blocks away. So she would need her chair. But, she was embarrassed about having to bring her chair because people give her looks when they see her get out of the chair and start walking. People need to realize that some of us who use assistance devices don't need them all the time. It just irritates me how ignorant people can be regarding disabilities. People need to be better educated on the subject so we wont have to deal with stupid crap.

Working while on SSI. What a pain in the ass

This blog entry was inspired by this blog entry.



On the one hand the social security administration wants people to get off SSI and back to work. On the other hand, there are so many hassles and red tape that they make it hard to get to work. Here is the kind of crap I have to deal with

I work a 12 hour a week job at Target stocking the shelves. I have to report my income to the social security administration. They then use that income to determine my SSI payment. My SSI payment is based on my income TWO MONTHS AGO. Sometimes at work we finish early so I end up leaving work at 8am instead of the usual 9am. I also sometimes call in sick to work because of my disability. So if I am getting an SSI payment based on 12 hours a weeks pay, and I end up working fewer hours this month, you do the math. On top of that, if my current SSI payment is greater than it should be based on my current months earning, then I have an overpayment. They then cut back subsequent SSI payments to pay back the overpayment. At my job I get payed every 2 weeks. So sometimes I get 3 paychecks per month. For example. Next month I will get 3 paychecks. But, my last paycheck will be on the LAST day of the month. But, since my SSI payment will not be what it should be, based on that months earning, I will get an overpayment. Currently they are withholding some of my SSI payments due to an overpayment. The overpayment was because I got 3 paychecks that month. So after February I will have my SSI cut back to cover 2 overpayments. I could try and argue with them that I can't afford to pay back the overpayment. But I don't know if I want to bother with the hassles and red tape associated with that.

Given the difficulties I face at my job I have been tempted to quit. But, I can't. If I tell them that I quit my job, will they then pay me my full SSI payment next month? I don't know. But my guess is, probably not. Especially since I have those overpayments. Additionaly, if I do quit. I would probably have to jump through fiery hoops to demonstrate to them that I quit because of my disability.

Some people seem to think that being on SSI is great. It's free money after all. Well let me tell you something, the money isn't free. There are whole lot of hassles and red tape that come along with it. If you can get by without SSI, I would do that.