Different Tones of Voice
By now my autobiography has gotten a lot of people to read it and maybe are seeing the disabled differently now. If you didn’t notice it when I wrote that in a friendly,charming sometimes ranting tone of voice. As a writer my job is to not only to get people to read the words I have wrote but understand the emotion behind them. Tone of voice even in writing is the biggest part of it. It doesn’t matter if I’m writing for J.G Lights,Freya James,Meredith Rosemen or Mitchell Myers. Their tones of voice even on paper (laptop) make up how you see them in your mind.
What I’m getting at is tone of voice means a lot in the real world as much as the writing world. As someone who spent a great time in the learning disabled community I have heard all kinds of tones of voice. From the normal range to the overly nice where it almost as if you are a toddler. I have had people talk down to me and have heard people talk down to other disabled people as well. When that had happen I normally try to speak up and call people on it. Sometimes people also do that not knowing they are talking down to us. It takes a certain ear to hear the difference at times.
As I said in the biography when people treat the disabled like crap they expect us to just sit back smiling and take it. Same thing with being talked to in that tone of voice. When I talk to people anyone I talk to them normally i don’t put on a voice or anything. (If I do then I don’t know about it.) If we come up and talk to you as if we are all people then talk to us like we are people too. It’s not like we are asking for much out of anyone around us.
The reason why I have wrote this part cause this last month a friend talked to me in the over nice almost talking down to me voice. I know his tone of voice changes from friendly to work to that. The guy is easier to read then a comic strip the back of a newspaper. It’s sad to say that I have to expect that from maybe my old teachers and maybe doctors but from family and friends not so much cause you would think they are the ones who would treat you as if you are just you. A number of years ago I was visiting my dad’s family and my cousin on that side (who is three years younger then i am) talked down to me as if I was my one year old nephew. I kind of called her out on it. Not at the place we were at but when we got back to the house. I understand why she did it cause that is how she was raised and we didn’t really get to grow up with one another. But being the older cousin you would think i would have a little more respect then she was giving me.
What I am trying to say is try to be mindful in your tone of voice when you talk to not just the disabled but to anyone at all. Because you might think you are being friendly but to someone else it might be offensive to them. And If my tone of voice in this was offensive to you in some form then I apologize to you.
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