Localtech907

Fuckin Toby

Andy & Dwight: Country Roads

Deaf people interact with hearing people on a daily basis, hearing people just don't notice deaf people since it's not a very obvious disability.

As for why they forgo cochlear implants, imagine living your life for 15, 25, 40+ years and then being told that you can hear (somewhat). You have to learn a new language, how to pronounce everything, and you'd be faced with a varying array of sounds that you would have no clue as to what they are. Imagine hearing metal against glass in a coffee shop, or the sound of an airplane, car alarm or squeaking door. It would be an overload of your hearing (assuming that you could suddenly hear perfectly again, which wouldn't be the case as you'd hear static and distorted voices which you still would have a hard time understanding unless you can see the lips). If you've lived with your disability without handouts and with no real impact (unless viewed from an outside perspective) why would you want the change?

Some of the older Deaf community do take CI's as an insult but many of these people were also born completely deaf and were forced to learn how to lip read and were smacked for using sign language. Once they were allowed to sign and have a way to communicate then the world opened up to them. The other side also argues that CI's and their proponents are not a perfect solution and do significant damage to the cochlear which can't be repaired. Many of these proponents are also against teaching sign language as they see it as a crutch, while failing to understand that learning a new language is never a bad thing and can only help you in life.

As for the deaf people that wish deafness on their kid, it's mostly new parents who are afraid that if their child is hearing they won't learn sign language and that they will never be able to communicate with them, since many of their own families never took the time to learn a way to communicate with them. It's not that people are wishing a disability on their children for an outlook, it's a fear that if you think about can be a very real possibility.

Some deaf people can be condescending to hearing people, and it goes the other way around (even more so because of mispronunciation) but you could have just caught them on a bad day where they were tired of having hearing people come up to them and show off their ABC's.

Just trying to give you a different perspective.

SOURCE: C.O.D.A (Child Of Deaf Adult) Son to a Father who was afraid I might not learn ASL, wasn't allowed to learn sign language till the age of 6 or 7 and was slapped, and smacked for pointing or not responding to oralist teachers when they called for him.

Hey Mr. Norton

So did you end up getting someone to type your answers or are you doing the typing all on your own?