Deafness - to hear or not to hear
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My brother is has been profoundly deaf since birth.... He has for years worked as a social worker for those with disabilities and also as an interpreter some. He went to school in a regular school that had an AMAZING hearing impaired program that focused on speech and music and being able to function in the hearing world. It's about your attitude more than anything how you fit into the world.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Minion-Queen said:
@Dashrender said:
I went to a deaf rally as part of my ASL courses a few years ago - the thing that struck me was how the speaker was really preaching ASL power which felt like what it was probably like back in the 60's hearing about black power. It was rather off putting.
I understand the need to accept oneself with the situations life's thrown at them, but this seemed over the top for that.
The Deaf Power movement is a bit militant. My ex sister in law is profoundly deaf, her son is hearing impaired and would be able to communicate fine if he wore his hearing aids and actually participated in speech. However she wont let him wear his hearing aids at home and will not allow even my hearing niece to vocalize in her house. It's a bit crazy.
That's much of what I have seen. The deaf seem to want everyone to be deaf and will actively work against people attempting to overcome deafness or to interact with the outside world like hearing people do.
I have not see that be the situation locally - thankfully. In fact, when I run into a deaf person, they surprised and very happy more often than not that I can sign - granted not great or anything, but enough to get by.
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I worked with a profoundly deaf guy at IBM who was so good at speaking and lip reading that people would to him from behind who worked with him everyday because they never knew he was deaf at all. We shared an office and sometimes I'd be like "You do realize he's completely deaf and doesn't know you are in the room, let alone speaking, right?"
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I feel at a disadvantage most of the time for communicating in the deaf community. I was taught Rochester Method (completely finger spelling everything said) or ESL. That doesn't translate to ASL at all.
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@Minion-Queen said:
I feel at a disadvantage most of the time for communicating in the deaf community. I was taught Rochester Method (completely finger spelling everything said) or ESL. That doesn't translate to ASL at all.
That the deaf community is heavily divided does not help them any.
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Maybe the biggest question is not "when to hear", but when does "not hearing" turn into "not listening"?
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@scottalanmiller said:
Maybe the biggest question is not "when to hear", but when does "not hearing" turn into "not listening"?
For anybody with hearing aids... when they turn them off and make it look like they are just scratching their ears, lol.
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@Minion-Queen said:
It's about your attitude more than anything how you fit into the world.
This is a good life lesson for anybody with or without disabilities.
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By no means did it render me deaf, but I lost some hearing from a hunting accident. I'd get it back if I could but it's a whole other level to go from unable to hear I'm sure.
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If not from a hunting incident, quite possibly from the long term exposure from a server room, lol.
Our two server rooms here are extremely loud (even to me)... I don't have a hard time understanding the guys in there since I can read lips. But they have a terrible time understanding me (oh, sweet irony).
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Apropos
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