Some neurodivergent people out here are non verbal, this is specifically prevalent for autistic folks. This is the way they are, and they do exist, within society. Some neurodivergent people also can speak, but that takes a big toll on their health...is extremely energy consuming and lead to burnout at some point in life. Those people push their limits because of the same reasonning, if everyone can do it, they too, can, if they try hard enough, until they break, medically break, physically break. The idea of non verbal people being retarded also show how limited your knowledge about that topic is. Intelligence is a not a straight line, it's a spectrum. For example even a animal might outsmart you on a given task. But that doesn't mean you're retarded, you have other skills up your sleeves. For non verbal people, speaking is abuse, speaking is destroying their mental health.
Like gay conversion therapy, therapy to make people verbal also exist, this attempt to make people fit a certain idea of normal is abuse, it gove them ptsd. It says a lot about our current society.
People with dyslexia or dyscalculia can outperform normal people on some tasks but it is regarded as a flaw because our schooling system put a big emphasis on reading and mathematics. You never see a illness about lack of creativity. Some people are creative and some aren't, and it's okay, but not all skill benefits from the same acceptance. What if a person isn't creative ? Is it that important ? No, they probably have their own strong points. Imagine directly labelling them as retarded....The double standard is tough. And that's seemed to be the case for Shizuka san. Actually I think that the author did a great job in giving visibility to a minority, and in a very smart way. It's actually more effective to ask for help and find a social group that'll be willing to listen to your needs and support you rather than hiding how much you're struggling and overworking yourself, that's the secret recipy for a crippling mental health and that's for everyone, verbal or not. The author giving visibility might change what is tolerated or not in real life. And tolerated or not, people like Shizuka do exist, do suffer and non verbal people that exist in real life can be cute and quirky. I can understand your point on the sudden swift in genre though, not to your liking, fine, but please stop spreading misinformation and hate. Therenis nothing more dangerous than hate disguised as concern.
If you really were concerned about Shizuka then you're doing the opposite of what can really help her. Which is creating a place for her to thrive in society. She can communicate just fine with modern devices.... rejection at this point is purely social chosen rejection.
It also pains me how mental health is disregarded even to this day. It's not because you can't see it that the struggles don't exist. Can you see love ? Then does love exist ? For depressed people even doing simple things is not simple yet it is so easily labelled as lazy.
You also seems to lack knowledge in Japanese language. Maybe that's on the translation team but you basically almost never say something straightforwardly in Japanese. Even more so with someone you just met and your senior or superior. The phrasing you mentioned about is very clear to understand for japanese people and both of them knew of the meaning in
Even, straight out saying"yeah she can't speak but it's fine" would've been rude as fuck.
Also....have you missed the last panels where she speaks herself to her mom ? Acknowledging that she ran away from communication and decided to change that ? While maintaining her boundaries.
They gave her a place to exist and thrive as herself. It's more than what we could ever wish for in real life. And it's beautiful. At the end her mom said something along the lines of "So this is how you communicate ?" realising that in a attempt to "better" her daughter by projecting her own insecurities onto her she lost sight of her daughter and severed real communication. They were able to mendle that back at the end.
