Typing...

So with a few hours left before I have to go to work, I thought I'd blog a little. Typing with CP has always been an issue. I don't type normally. I can't, again it's in the details. Granted I haven't really let it slow me down. I still graduated a semester early, I still got all As and a B in school this last semester.

I just type mostly with my left hand. I also do type at a slower rate, at 30 wpm (words per minute) whereas a legal secretary types  at an average of 90 wpm. Luckily I'm studying to become a paralegal. So I'm hoping that doesn't factor in as much. Otherwise they should really make a certain wpm required for entrance into the program.

Now through school growing up and even at ISU I never got disability assistance.I know I was evaluated in grade school, after the evaluator finally realized I was the one to be evaluated. Like I've said before I can usually hide my CP if I want to. Even back then. However being at DMACC, has forced me to seek disability assistance. Since I couldn't type as fast, I decided to get that buffer so that I could get extra time on in-class writing assignments if needed. Since my professor couldn't give me extra time without documentation, and I get that. I had to. I was again so afraid of being talked down to. However, the campus disability services liaison is really understanding of my CP, and knows that when it comes to my intelligence, I'm just fine, my CP is a purely physical disability. So I guess disability services isn't that bad, and I let my own stereotypes get to me at first.

There are people out there that will talk down to a person with a physical disability though, and that's probably what I hate most. It's what I fear the most, that once I can no longer hide my CP, that someone will start talking to me like I have the comprehension like that of a four year old. Typing is a dead give away that something is not normal with my right hand. I feel vulnerable to ridicule when I'm typing. I also feel bad when someone just tells me to type normally, I suppose I should feel flattered that again, they think I'm normal, but no. Just really, no. I'm not. I'll never be normal, and that's okay. Being normal sounds boring anyway.