I went up to Dargaville on 30th September, and was met by my parents to go to Waimamaku (about an hours drive north of Dargaville.) I booked Main Coach Line, which picked me up from my home. It was great value for money, $48.

But the phone call to Main Coach Line was complex and made me feel that poor speech equalled no intelligence in the minds of many people, including the Main Coach Line receptionist. On reflection, I should have used Speech to Speech Relay Service the first time round.

On the first attempt she got every detail right except my address, which was the most important. So I used Speech to Speech in my next attempt. The relay assistant and I laughed when we had finished explaining things to Main Coach Line, because the receptionist still could not understand my address , even though it was pronounced

properly with “normal” speech. Stupidly, I asked my support worker to phone Main Coach Line to see if they knew what time they would pick me up. The phone was on speaker phone, and one of the comments made by the receptionist was “I found it so hard to understand her, she must be terribly handicapped”. Thankfully I get over comments like that quite quickly. On the day of the bus trip, the receptionist did phone me with a pick-up time, but asked for my caregiver, but I managed to extract the information I needed.

One of the biggest frustrations in having cerebral palsy is having speech difficulty, mainly because it’s associated with level of intelligence in many ignorant people who have never encountered cerebral palsy before.

I would love to see an advertising campaign, similar to the “Like Minds” strategy aimed at reducing the stigma of mental illness. I think something like this would promote cerebral palsy in a positive way –

Ross Flood- Editor
55 Hillside Road
Papatoetoe
Auckland
Phone/Fax (including answer phone) (09) 278-7106
Email Ross Flood