At the risk of violating my own rule of "always being entitled to your opinion, not always entitled to express it", I am going to do just that.

First of all, many of us have been blessed with a natural "talent" or perhaps just the benefit of a good education and have the ability to spell correctly and so forth. However, there are many who are not blessed in that area, be it due to an inclination towards other areas of learning or even a learning disability.

As the daughter of a man who has struggled with literacy issues his enitre life, I have come to see what a true disability the inability to read or write or spell can be and it is important to me. It has also made me sensitive to the needs of others who are in the same situation, as I have seen him struggle with his disability and watched him deal with the humiliation and self-esteem issues that have come along with it on a daily basis.

Is it annoying having to read mispelled words at times, probably---if we choose to make it annoying. Just as I am sure it has been annoying for my father to have had to turn down job promotions and to have never been able to fill out paper work without my mother's assistance or to write a check without having one to look at to make sure he didn't embarrass himself with his inability to spell. It isn't something he has chosen for himself, nor do I imagine others who have difficulties with this issue, choose it for themselves! It is a disability nothing more!

How many of us would feel comfortable pointing out or voicing our annoyances at someone with another type of disability? When held up in the line at a store as a blind person counts out their change, when we are in a hurry? When someone with cerebal palsy struggles to speak to us? When we have to wait, some of us impatiently, for an elderly person with a walker or wheelchair to cross the street? Or a person with CFS or depression or anxiety "ruins" our plans simply because they aren't feeling quite up to it??

Probably not many of us would feel the right or the need to tell these people to hurry up and get out of our way or to tell the person with severe depression to "just snap out of it"! Those who struggle with the issue brought to attention in this forum, should be afforded the same degree of consideration as they struggle with their disability too!

If we are annoyed then deal with it! Where on earth is there this big written in stone rule that says we are never going to be annoyed and if we are then we by God had better figure out how to get rid of it so we won't have to be annoyed any longer???

We are a mental health support community----I for one am a bit ashamed to think that there may have been people who have come to this board seeking mental health support, who have read this thread, and despite their urgent need, realizing their own limitations,have been too intimidated to post and left without asking for the very support they sought and we are supposedly offering.

Just my opinion, and I know that I am not always entitled to express it, but I felt that there were those out there who needed a voice on this board--be they members or just visitors in need.....as we all once were!

Thank you, Deanna