Social Security Administration Understanding FAIL

[service_dog_user]

I have a neurological disorder that causes me all sorts of problems, one of which being a sensory integration problem. On days that I'm no doing so well, I cannot talk to people over the phone because I cannot understand them. My husband usually handles phone calls for me on these days if they cannot wait.

I've been on disability for a little more than a year, and this was the first occasion I've had to contact them by phone. Since I was really not dong well, I had my husband call them. The lady who answered insisted on speaking to me for confirmation, so I did the usual have my husband hold the phone while I said they had permission to speak to him.

Well, apparently this wasn't good enough. The lady insisted that *I* had to be the one carrying out the conversation with her. Nevermind the fact that my husband tried repeatedly to tell her that I could not understand her. Her response? Well, if I just held the phone up to my ear, rather than putting her on speakerphone so my husband could tell me what she was saying, then I would be able to understand her just find. Because that's obviously been my problem the whole time, that I just don't hold the phone up to me ear.

What upset me the most about this whole thing is that the SSA is a disability services program, ergo they work with people with disabilities on a regular basis. You'd think that their representatives would have been trained that if a client says they can't do something, then chances are they can't do it. And to top it all off, she was a complete jerk about it and wouldn't let me speak with her supervisor.