text versus verbal

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Last year and the year before I had legal problems, and all the tribunals required me to communicate either in person or over the phone. No email. (This includes the human rights tribunal. There's no provision for legal cases being heard over the internet, at least not here.) And just a couple of weeks ago, I considered joining a women in film organization, so I emailed them a question about the application form. No response. The police and noise complaint lines don't even have email addresses you can use - you have to phone. (And the reason I had legal problems in the first place was at least partly because my building manager thought my using text rather than phone was an insult rather than a communication need on my part.)

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, hence the poll, but I find it very hard to use the phone for anything not completely automatic, and I need text for anything that is hard to formulate or stressful to discuss. Which means when I have to use the phone (or go in in person), I am effectively denied at least some services, since I can't communicate effectively that way.

Has anyone addressed this with government offices, police, other organizations that treat email like second class communication? It seems to me that email acts as a ramp for us, allowing us to participate in society more, and we should be demanding that it be placed on equal footing with verbal communication for essential services. I'm trying to figure out how to handle this and if anyone has succeeded (or failed) already, I'd like to know what happened.

email is horrible as far as security goes so it will never be adopted as a 'legal' communication media but there are other 'test' options. I don't know if they are legfally acceptable but I trained several handicapped individuals one time who had to communicate thru a teletype type device and I think these are hooked up to work at police stations etc. My deaf grandaughters have some type of device that hooks up to the phone system. Somebody here probaly has more/better information.
I think this is an interesting question.

Text/email is much easier for me. I've found that, over the years, I'm able to access more using this means of communication. However, there are still some things I cannot access and get delayed trying to find someone to communicate by telephone on my behalf.

Arranging medical appointments is very problematic. There is an online system, but it's inadequate; for instance, I couldn't get an appointment using the online system one day, but managed to get someone to telephone on my behalf immediately afterwards and they were successful. There's also a problem with confidentiality; I give my consent for someone to communicate on my behalf, and yet people can get offended by that and refuse to engage with my chosen advocate. I let it be known in various ways that this is unacceptable. Apart from that, I cannot do much about it.

This is a huge barrier to independent living; hence my lack of it.

I run most work related stuff via email. I am a hermit. emails are my preferred mode of communication. then phone. face to face comes last except when i feel very secure with someone and it is one on one.

face to face groups are terrifying unless i am in a special interest related context.T
Then i can hold my own no problems because i draw on expertise. However, the minute the group moves into "social" mode I am obviously crippled and at a loss.
I am always armed with art books at those times, so i bury my head in these or talk OVER the top of everyone and make a complete fool of myself.

Dayum that sucks...

It's ashame there isn't enough systems to communicate via text. My mom also has this problem and she's not autistic. I would think email or text would be a much more efficient way to communicate as many people in those professions talk fast using high falutin talk. I had my case worker be my advocate in cases much similar.

Oh, yeah, and I can't contact my case worker by email either, though I could write a letter, and wait for a reply, and write back, and wait for a reply . . . . Doesn't work very well.

I think part of the problem for me is assembling words into sentences in real time. Conversations go too fast.

Never tried TDD, don't know if it would work. Heck, I haven't ever tried a Blackberry either. The size of the gizmo seems to be relevant, too, for some reason.

I do prefer very much communicating in writing: It forces all involved to express their ideas in a clear and recordable manner.

---

This causes some problems in daily life, especially with my lover: He thinks it is strange when I want to express something of importance instead of saying it, I write a notice and give the notice to him or just write an e-mail. But I do so to avoid any misunderstandings.

because of own needs and being speech impaired,staff do all phone calls including to family.am would recommend doing it this way-if have got someone else to relie on,and dont mind it either.
it's probably similar or the same way as outlier mentioned....with regular used companies and organisations the staff fax over written concent from am to say they are allowed to answer phone calls on behalf [otherwise the people on the other end of phone will ask staff if they could get am to say 'yes' when they say about giving permission permission..to allow the staff to carry on the call-useless when am fully non verbal].
Another option some companies have done is set up the account passworded so that anyone who phones them and gives them all the right address details with the password-can speak to them about the account,sky did this originally but ended up just getting written concent as staff always forgot and lost the password.

As for text phones some have mentioned,think they need to be phoning another text phone to be able to work-and not all places have them.

Anemone,
am would say have a look at the local disability laws and see if the lack of accomodation for own needs breaks the law,as they have to meet disability needs by law [assuming there is one,as some places are rubbish for disability laws,like spain-parts of it are so bad they dont even meet the needs of wheel chair users].

That's the TTY system (for your deaf grandaughters). Some w/ Autism/AS are using this option too. Like KoR wrote, disability law can be dismal and to the detriment of all who use faciliated speech devices in whatever form.

Writing is best! And I do. The dilemma is some choose to not listen and that's at least rude. For one who is verbal speech is listened to by default since listener cannot voluntarily 'shut-off' their hearing (but wouldn't that be a good option sometimes ).
Those who are NV must rely upon their listener to READ. READING means from top to bottom, left to right. Skipping or skimming is not appropriate is understanding one who NV - we're not like the daily newspaper.

Have you ever listened to bits & pieces of a movie clip, for example? Then, if you were asked, "What did that character just say?" You could not possibly answer that question despite the fact that speaker is clear and succinct. NTs have a miserable time assimilating this concept.

So Autistics can be ignored at lot.

But never fear! There is the alternative method (this works...): Write you note. Tie it to a heavy brick and throw it hard at the person who's supposed to be listening to you. Lab Pet can be crafty....heh heh.

Same here. No one will ever believe it, because one minute I seem fully articulate, the next minute I'm not talking. They just figure I have nothing to say.

That's a start. Someone like that certainly needs it more than I do. Their need is easy to understand, while in my case they'll never get it and think -- who knows what they think.

I think that might be just the trouble. If they put it in writing, you can quote them. If they make a clear promise, you can hold them to it. I don't think most people realize how full of crap they are until they try writing it out, and then they become uncomfortable. I bet they honestly don't know why.

I think you just solved all of my problems.

In order, from easiest to most difficult :

Email and similar
Instant messengers
In person
The telephone

I find spoken communication a lot easier if I have the opportunity to plan beforehand what I'm going to say. Unfortunately this doesn't often happen.

I put phone easiest because I like isntant gratification. I hate waiting for someone to respond in text, and I loathe more than anything trying to type out a text message on the phone. Since I tend to monologue, it can take me several hours to compose a message on a phone text, and then I delete most of it (which takes forever) when I realize how long it is, then I send it and it's still sent as more than one message, and then I get to do it all over again.

But when it comes to communicating what I'm saying without it getting misunderstood, email is easiest for me. I finally got to the point where my sister and I are required to take our arguments and debates to the email.

Direct communication (I understand that as talking to someone who will answer back and prompt you to replay again) is easiest in person for me.

I cannot do the back and forth thing in written communication.

I can make phone calls now, but I need to be prepared and I cannot make them if I do not know who will be on the other end.

It's odd, but the person I had the most trouble with recently was someone who deals with disability issues for a living. I emailed my consent for an advocate to speak on my behalf, and they replied to this person with a very defensive attitude, gave no answers, and said they'd only speak with me. I haven't contacted them since. Coincidentally, anonymous feedback forms were sent to service users soon afterwards, and I made it known what had occurred.

Other communication matters relating to appointments etc., which might give others some useful ideas:

--The doctor recently obtained my consent to allow someone to phone on my behalf when I need to know whether my test results are available, preventing them from battling with receptionists for this information
--The counsellor I used to see would tell me to call if something happened in between appointments. I had to explicitly let them know that I did not use phones; they said this would not have not occurred to them if I'd not mentioned it, even though much of the counselling had concerned such issues! Therefore, it's necessary to be explicit; even when things seem obvious, they are not to others.
--I usually have writing prepared before appointments. So far, people prefer this because it means bypassing the awkwardness of trying to communicate complex matters via speech. It's especially useful for medical appointments, which are short, and where it's more important that communication is accurate.
--When dealing with banks, I write what I need on a post-it note beforehand. It helps to go with someone as well, because I'm often asked questions and can't make out the words in a noisy environment. The other person translates if I don't understand.

I had to be interviewed by the newspaper over the phone. I hated it. My answers were short and my pronunciation on some words was failing. I would have much preferred the questions being e-mailed to me.
I contacted the Irlen Syndrome company through e-mail and I told them I wasn't good on the phone and they were fine with it.

On phone/ in person is hard for me to do. I only like talking to those I know on the phone. I prefer text and e-mail, because I have time to think about how to structure my sentences, so they make sense. In face to face or over the phone chat I can't do that.

i mostly prefer to communicate in a textual way. but there are times when i have a real life discussion, that i know i could never have said as much by typing my ideas.

i have a friend (he visits me about once every 3 weeks) who listens to me carefully and never interrupts me. he seems enthralled at my conceptual appreciation of topics he brings up.
i go into a completely detailed breakdown of every facet of my concept about his chosen topic. the amount of words i say is not restricted by my tiring fingers, and it is not restricted by not knowing if anyone is really interested (like a faceless audience i talk to here).

i say in 20 minutes what would be the equivalent of 30 pages of posts, and i could never type even 1 whole page of posts before i got tired of what i was thinking.
typing is slow (relative to idea speed) and i can type what i have thought for the last 3 minutes, but if i wish to keep up with my speed of thought, then i have to talk.

whatever. i just thought i would say my idea.