Respecting individual needs and appreciating personal experiences will help us all see beyond the disability and help create a stronger, more supportive and welcoming community.

Communicate Better With Disabled People

Following are some tips that you should keep in mind when communicating with disabled people.

• Treat people with a disability with the same respect and consideration you have for everyone else.
• Don’t assume what a person can or can’t do.
• Speak to people with a disability directly, not through their carer, assistant or interpreter.
• Ask before you help – don’t just jump in.
• Can’t understand what’s being said? Don’t pretend – ask again.
• Take some time – people with some kinds of disability may take a little longer to understand and respond.
• Some disabilities are invisible. Get to know people.
• Guide dogs are working dogs. Never pat or speak to a guide dog while it’s wearing a harness.

Other Useful Communication Tips

• When talking with a person with a disability, speak directly to that person rather than through a companion or sign language interpreter who may be present.
• When introduced to a person with a disability, it is appropriate to offer to shake hands. People with limited hand use or who wear an artificial limb can usually shake hands. (Shaking hands with the left hand is an acceptable greeting.)
• When meeting a person with a visual impairment, always identify yourself and others who may be with you. When conversing in a group, remember to identify the person to whom you are speaking.
• If you offer assistance, wait until the offer is accepted. Then listen to or ask for instructions.
• Treat adults as adults. Address people who have disabilities by their first names only when extending the same familiarity to all others. (Never patronize people who use wheelchairs by patting them on the head or shoulders.)
• Leaning or hanging on a person’s wheelchair is similar to leaning or hanging on a person and is generally considered annoying. The chair is part of the person’s body space.
• Listen attentively when you’re talking with a person who has difficulty speaking. Be patient and wait for the person to finish rather than correcting or speaking for the person. If necessary, ask short questions that require short answers, a nod or a shake of the head. Never pretend to understand if you are having difficulty doing so. Instead, repeat what you have understood and allow the person to respond. The response will clue in and guide your understanding.
• When speaking with a person in a wheelchair or a person who uses crutches, place yourself at eye level in front of the person to facilitate the conversation.
• To get the attention of a person who is hearing-impaired, tap the person on the shoulder or wave your hand. Look directly at the person and speak clearly, slowly, and expressively to establish if the person can read your lips. Not all people with a hearing impairment
  can lip-read. For those who do not lip-read, be sensitive to their needs by placing yourself facing the light source and keeping hands, cigarettes, and food away from your mouth when speaking.
• Relax. Don’t be embarrassed if you happen to use accepted, common expressions such as “See you later,” or “Did you hear about this,” that seem to relate to the person’s disability.

Speech and Language Disabilities

Individuals suffering from speech disabilities often show limited or no speaking ability. They lose the ability to interact normally with others and have issues in expressing themselves through words. Speech impairments may also cause a difficulty in public speaking and articulation. Overall, an individual experiences difficulty in communication skills and shows evident signs of speech difficulties.

Causes of Speech and Language Disabilities

Speech and language disabilities may occur as a side effect of many other forms of disabilities and conditions. The speech impairment may be the direct result of something entirely difficult and yet affect an individual’s life tremendously. Some of the causes of speech disability are:

1. Hearing Impairment: Many a time, speech disabilities are formed due to a loss in hearing as hearing is very critical in the development of your speech skills.
2. Brain injury: A brain injury due to some accident may hurt the region of the brain which controls speech and languages. This might cause a communication disability due to damage to that control region.
3. Learning disabilities: A child may develop speech disabilities if he is suffering from some form of learning disability as this hinders other areas of growth and development.
4. Neurological disorders: Individuals suffering from neurological disorders might develop speech difficulties as well.
5. Physical disabilities: Various physical disabilities result in speech impairments to the individual.
6. Mental retardation: One may experience speech and language disabilities when they suffer from some kind of mental retardation.

Living with Speech Disabilities

As we can see, speech disabilities may occur due to several reasons. While some may overcome them with continuous practice and effort, others may find it next to impossible to get rid of this speech impairment from their lives. Instead of letting it get you down and affecting your life negatively, you can take a number of steps to seek help and make things look a little brighter for you. In order to cope with speech disabilities, one may consider the following points:

• Therapy: Seek speech disability therapy from trained professionals to improve the quality of your speech.
• Technology: Use the numerous technological products that are available to individuals suffering from speech disabilities in order to make daily activities a little simpler. Examples of such products are text to speech devices, communication aids, modified keyboards etc.
• Don’t stress: Many individuals suffering from speech impairments increase the severity of their disorder by stressing out about it. Relaxing and explaining your situation to concerned individuals around you might help improving your condition.
• Support groups: It is important to remember that you are not the only one suffering from a speech disability. There are many others and many support groups have been set up to help individuals like you.

Thus we see that speech disability can be of many different types. There are many treatment and help options available for individuals suffering from speech disabilities. Numerous devices are being created everyday to make the lives of these individuals with communication disabilities to lead a close to normal life. Various support groups and organizations have been set up to help with speech disabilities. Although in a lot of cases this speech impairment might be permanent, without a chance of ever gaining the speech ability back, these helpful tips might at least improve their lives and help them better cope with their speech difficulties.

References:

1. Typical Speech and Language Development – American Speech-Language-Hearing Association