I don’t know if the people who invented it knows how valuable text messaging is for the deaf. It is a Godsend. It eliminates the need for that 100-year-old technology that the TDD provided. The problem is that very few businesses do texts as a normal part of their customer service. That adds to the stress for those of us who are deaf.

With my wife now gone, I am getting fully indoctrinated in the interactions between the hearing world and the deaf. At times I am ready to tear out what little hair I have left with the frustrations of getting businesses to use text messaging in communicating with me. Sometimes they do manage to text me to tell me to call this number? Many just don’t have a clue…

It amazes me how rigid and unfriendly most companies are with their processes. The primary way texting has worked for me is for the employee, who really cares, to use his personal smartphone to interact with me. I thank heavens that there are enough of that brave crowd to sometimes make interactions possible.

I am finding that it is necessary to pay a lawyer to be my “power of attorney” for many of the more financial things with my transition into widowhood. Yeah, they are expensive, but worth it in my case.

Let’s face it, most companies around today are pretty stodgy when it comes to taking advantage of given improvements. Amazon is one of the few companies that I don’t need someone to do the interactions with me. They are such a tremendous success because they really care about doing it right and using cutting edge technology to do things better.