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Rachel Simon's Talk: Accessible and Faultless

mheffern's picture

The manner in which Rachel Simon wove in pictures into her presentation was fascinating. We have been talking a lot in my Black Arts Movement Class about poems that are meant to be read allowed in a group as opposed to silently by oneself, and the structure of her presentation reminded me of this dynamic in that the pictures added another dimension to her written work. It was also very cool to hear at the end that these pictures were drawn by people with and without disabilities.

When I was driving home with some people from our class afterwards, someone mentioned that Simon had not stopped once to take a drink of water during her talk. Her speech was fluid, and she appeared very comfortable in front of a crowd. At the beginning of her talk, she also asked the audience whether her volume and distance from the microphone was ok. These details of her speech were thought-provoking for me because, on one hand, she ensured that her talk was as accessible as she could make it (there were both visual and oral components, and she took extra measures to ensure her diction was easy to understand). Yet, on the other hand, her presentation had no glitches (or at least it didn't seem to from my perspective), even though one of the main messages of it was embracing difference and unpredictability.  
 
Perhaps Simon's role as an "interpreter" has influenced the clarity with which she speaks and presents herself. People often tell my mom that her enunciation is impeccable, and she always replies that it is due to the role she played in Brian's speech therapy when he was younger. It would be interesting to research how growing up with a sibling whose speech or understanding is delayed affects one's own cadence and diction, and whether or not that person slips into different manners of speaking depending on what audience is listening.