Alice Wong

Maybe that's one aspect of being disabled in a non-disabled world.

I guess we have to be tenacious and pretty bearing in order to get the bare minimum, which in many ways drives us in our ambitions.

He created something out of a personal need that helped many disabled people, which is so rad.

My stance hasn't changed after David's mom reflected on that phrase.

Yes, David and I both lost our voices and he was able to gain it back thanks to the invention of his valve but let's say he wasn't able to speak again.

He would still have dignity despite mourning the loss of something so close to his identity.

I miss my voice every day and am frustrated by how I communicate and the way I sound on the radio right now but I still have dignity.

This may be too much to ask from something artificial, but at the very least, maybe when talking to friends who knew me in the before times, they will feel like it's the same me.

I agree, it's like a reclamation of my old self.

And the old self that was always a part of me that didn't get a chance to come out.

Of course, I can't go back, but this is a tool that might be helpful adjusting to this new way of existing.

I wonder if a good analogy is with cosmetic surgery.

This is something I don't really need to live, but

It makes me feel a bit better about myself.

Good to see you.

I think the inner me has changed because I still cannot be my full self.

And by full self I mean my old self and this is a conflict that I struggle with.

I lost a way to express my personality, humor, I lost the kind of wit that comes from my ability to quickly respond or interject something vital during a chat.

I lost my ability to debate and smack someone down with an argument who deserves it.

I lost that sense of freedom, looseness, and messiness.