mellowtigger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mellowtigger) wrote2020-04-14 12:10 pm
mellowtigger) wrote2020-04-14 12:10 pm
a death in tough times
Amanda Baggs died a few days ago. She was about 13 years younger than me. I don't feel anything in particular about it. I wanted to mention it here, though, since she was a minor celebrity figure, both for autism and for assisted communication.
I met her (or sie/hir) at an Autreat conference around 2006 or 2007. I went to Autreat twice back in those early days. I learned that proper etiquette requires silence and patience while someone types on their communication device. Putting entire conversations on hold with a group a people is a hard sell, even amongst a group of people who are willing to do things weirdly. But discussion still functioned okay with these delays.
I didn't learn until recently that there was a whole... controversy... about her nonverbal nature. Apparently she didn't start using the device until late in life, well into adulthood, and she was clearly verbal beforehand. (point / counterpoint) I prefer to avoid involvement in situations involving claims that I can't verify, and her life is one of those situations. I don't know anything more than those two webpages explain. Regardless of the particulars, I'm sure that she had a tough life, and I'm sure that she had some good ideas and beautiful ideas. She seemed to think, as I do, that everything is connected.
Her cause of death is not publicly known. She was recently hospitalized with flu, then immediately begged for money. Her last post on April 10th suggests that she returned to the hospital because of an injury after a fall. Her hospital changed appearance and procedures due to COVID-19 precautions.
Those were her last public words. Beyond the twitter announcement, there's no public information. If her death was related to COVID-19, somebody probably would have mentioned that association immediately. The USA healthcare system is the worst in the developed world, and I guess I want to make that point in a more personal way rather than a statistical one. Individual lives are affected, and we really should do better. We can do better as a nation, so why don't we?
I met her (or sie/hir) at an Autreat conference around 2006 or 2007. I went to Autreat twice back in those early days. I learned that proper etiquette requires silence and patience while someone types on their communication device. Putting entire conversations on hold with a group a people is a hard sell, even amongst a group of people who are willing to do things weirdly. But discussion still functioned okay with these delays.
I didn't learn until recently that there was a whole... controversy... about her nonverbal nature. Apparently she didn't start using the device until late in life, well into adulthood, and she was clearly verbal beforehand. (point / counterpoint) I prefer to avoid involvement in situations involving claims that I can't verify, and her life is one of those situations. I don't know anything more than those two webpages explain. Regardless of the particulars, I'm sure that she had a tough life, and I'm sure that she had some good ideas and beautiful ideas. She seemed to think, as I do, that everything is connected.
Her cause of death is not publicly known. She was recently hospitalized with flu, then immediately begged for money. Her last post on April 10th suggests that she returned to the hospital because of an injury after a fall. Her hospital changed appearance and procedures due to COVID-19 precautions.
"Necessary but spooky as all hell."
- https://cussinanddiscussin.wordpress.com/2020/04/10/surreal/
- https://cussinanddiscussin.wordpress.com/2020/04/10/surreal/
Those were her last public words. Beyond the twitter announcement, there's no public information. If her death was related to COVID-19, somebody probably would have mentioned that association immediately. The USA healthcare system is the worst in the developed world, and I guess I want to make that point in a more personal way rather than a statistical one. Individual lives are affected, and we really should do better. We can do better as a nation, so why don't we?