![]() ![]() Is “inferior” to a person who can do those things. Wouldn’t say that a person who doesn’t know how to change the oil on their car or bake a cake “smarter” than a person who doesn’t know how to do those things? No! And we certainly ![]() Would we say that a person who knows how to change the oil on a car or bake a cake is So-a decision that was very likely made for them when they were very young, by their parents. People who have “one foot in each world” oftenīecome the best advocates, allies, interpreters and educators around.Īre D/deaf people who speak and read lips smarter than those who don’t?Ībsolutely not! D/deaf people who speak and read lips do so because they’ve learned how to do Recognize that this child will have a unique opportunity to have one foot in the Deaf community,Īnd one foot in the hearing community. And when a child is born hearing, parents Same Deaf school the parents attended, for example. Deaf parents recognize thatĪ Deaf or hard-of-hearing child is carrying on a proud family lineage-that child may go to the Status-Deaf, hard-of-hearing, or hearing-is cause for celebration. Should be doing that before making potentially permanent or life-defining decisions for thoseīy contrast, in families where one or both parents are Deaf, the birth of a child with ANY hearing Token, when we want to learn about issues surrounding deafness (or any other humanĮxperience), we should go to D/deaf adults and ask them about their experiences. Lived experiences as marginalized racial and gender groups about their experiences. When we want to learn about issues surrounding race and gender, we should ask people with But if you judge a fish by itsĪbility to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”. It’s like the saying: “Everybody is a genius. They can’t do (hear) rather than what they can do…when the rubric by which they are constantlyīeing evaluated is one that places who and what they are naturally as inferior to a preconceived This is critical, because being a great lipreader or having great speech doesn’t mean much whenĪ person’s self-esteem and mental health are damaged by a lifetime of being defined by what Themselves overall as a D/deaf or hard-of-hearing person. Language) so their child can be “normal”-rather than speaking with D/deaf adults and learningĪbout their experiences, what worked well, what didn’t, and how it made them feel about Teaching D/deaf people to speak and read lips to the exclusion of learning any form of sign Many hearing parents grieve when they learn they have a D/deaf child, and unfortunately, manyĪre swayed by surgeons, audiologists, and those who promote “oralism” exclusively (i.e., What does that look like within families? Have hearing parents-and, most D/deaf parents have hearing children. The Connexin 26 gene, which is estimated to be present in 1 in 30 people), 90% of D/deaf people While some causes of deafness are inherited and run in families (the most common being Reading and writing (including texting/typing things out on their phone)ĭo most D/deaf people have D/deaf parents? There are a variety of ways in which people with varying degrees of hearing loss may choose to Okay, so if a lot of D/deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people don’t use sign language, how do they ![]() United States, after English and Spanish. ASL is the third most commonly used language in the There are about half a million people in the United States and Canada who use ASL as their Among those who do sign, most use American Sign Language (or ASL). In the United States, about 70% of D/deaf and H/hard-of-hearing people do not use sign language at all. Sensory Disabilities, Communication Strategies, and Facts about Deafness and Hearing Loss:ĭo all D/deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people use sign language?
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