key/rowan1. @inoru_no_hoshi keeping me company and body-doubling while I picked up around the desk so that I can hopefully move the desk back to the back house when I have someone over.
2. someone responding to my mutual aid post with actual direct aid; the potential of making a new friend as well.
3. learning the advocacy needed to let myself live as largely non-speaking as I want to instead of forcing verbal communication and burning out and ruining my chances of accommodation when it inevitably becomes necessary. anything I want to accomplish I can do while largely non-speaking.
it's the same as that I don't owe anybody hearing, I don't owe anybody my voice either.
I fucking dare them to tell me I can't do it because I can't talk in most settings. I'll have their hide so fast, because that's flat out discrimination and it's not a safety-sensitive position where the qualifications for the job credentials overrule the ADA and are allowed and required to exclude certain disabilities.
several other non-speaking or partially non-speaking friends have said they'd be happy to see a counselor who also has a communication device or similar uses AAC in any form.