Five-Star Disability

Hi there everyone!

Last week, an elementary school friend offered to drop off a shelving unit at my new house.  Which was sorely needed, and thanks!

Yet, when the friend and her husband arrived, and brought in the bookshelf, I was grateful, and at the same time, lost.  My wife was chatting with them and I was asking the odd question.

My wife did provide some conversational tidbits: where had we met before, etc.  And yet, I was feeling left out.

It was a short visit and we were blessed with this awesome bookshelf.

Now, I am not upset at all!  I want that to be clear!  The suddenness of this drop off, and the shortness, made it really quick.  I felt left out, this my elementary school friend from ages ago… and I could not actively participate in the dialogue.  I was satisfied that had some give and take chat.

Because my hearing and vision are basically unusable, I cannot hear what people are talking about, nor can I lipread, never could anyways.  I am dependent on my wife for these situations.  And yet, my wife is also one person, she is also the host, and cannot by my intervenor 24/7.  I cannot expect her to serve 4 or 5 roles at the same time.

Yes, you are correct in the focus of this blog, Intervenors.  If I had an Intervenor, which is a professional who’s job is to provide visual and auditory information to a Deaf-Blind person, then I would have been more able to converse with my elementary school friend.   I would have been able to chat about our old teacher, which I had recently found, I would have been able to ask about her motorcycling and shown respect to her husband who had lost his parents recently.

The role of Intervenor is sorely needed here in Vancouver!

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