Being A Person Of Partial Hearing

We live in a world that is bounded by cultural norms and stereotypes that affect anyone who looks, acts, or is even born different. Our society narrowed scope views Deaf people as less, uneducated, and unworthy for the opportunities abled people are innately handed. There is a lack of opportunities that Deaf people received based on their disability in terms of jobs and acceptance. The feeling of acceptance is one thing the hearing community has felt at least once, if not their entire life, however it is a feeling that may be unknown to the Deaf community.

In mainstream American society, we tend to approach deafness as a defect. Helen Keller is alleged to have said, "Blindness cuts people off from things; deafness cuts people off from people." (rnib.org) This seems a very accurate description of what Keller's world must have been. We as hearing people tend to pity deaf people, or, if they succeed in the hearing world, admire them for overcoming a severe handicap. We tend to look at signing as an inferior substitute for "real" communication. We assume that all deaf people will try to lip-read and we applaud deaf people who use their voices to show us how far they have come from the grips of their disability. Given this climate, many hearing people are surprised, as I was at

Society is better than it used to be at recognising the needs of deaf people; there are more public buildings such as cinemas, theatres and conference facilities that have loop systems so that people who can use hearing aids are able to listen to what is being said or performed. There some events that now have signers to translate speeches and performances. Many television programmes now have access to subtitles and some have signers, although these tend to be late at night. People with any kind of sensory loss can have difficulties in finding employment. Even though the Equality Act and the Disability Discrimination Act mean that employers cannot discriminate, it is hard to convince an employer that a sensory loss does not necessarily mean that someone is unable to do a job.

The deaf community does not see their hearing impairment as a disability but as a culture which includes a history of discrimination, racial prejudice, and segregation. According to PBS home video “Through Deaf Eyes,” there are thirty-five million Americans that are hard of hearing (Hott, Garey & et al., 2007) . Out of the thirty-five million an estimated 300,000 people are completely deaf. There are over ninety percent of deaf people who have hearing parents. Also, most deaf parents have hearing children. With this being the exemplification, deaf people communicate on a more intimate and significant level with hearing people all their lives. “Deaf people can be found in every ethnic group, every region, and every economic class.” The

Depending on their language experience, most deaf immigrants go through their immigrant process learning English and American Sign Language simultaneously. Many struggle trying not to confuse the different grammar and syntax (Powers). They struggle with basic concepts. This struggle only causes a strain in creating a common language, which leaves deaf immigrants feeling isolated from the rest of the Deaf community. But even when they do begin to fully grasp the language they still can not communicate with family members who have not invested the time to learn American Sign Language. For many deaf immigrants they face adapting to an unfamiliar culture. American culture and sayings are difficult concepts to understand when there is a language barrier. Deaf immigrants are forced to quickly learn how to “Americanize” in order to fit in. Along with that, deaf immigrants face the challenge of finding transportation. Obtaining a drivers license is a very long and strung out process. Deaf immigrants must be literate in order to pass the written portion of the exam, which for some is a whole separate skill they must learn. But a major struggle many deaf immigrant face collectively is the search for their identity. Many fighting between the argument: is their deafness is a disability, or another human condition that builds community. For many Deaf Americans their deafness is not a disability, it is a culture.

Aside from communication and language, there are also such things as beliefs and customs that have lent towards the deaf and deaf-blind cultures. A positive attitude toward being deaf is typical in Deaf cultural groups. Deafness is not generally considered a condition that needs to be fixed. Culturally Deaf people value the use of natural sign languages that exhibit their own grammatical conventions, such as American Sign Language and British Sign Language, over signed versions of English or other spoken languages. Deaf culture in the United States tends to be collectivist rather than individualist; culturally Deaf people value the group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_culture#Values_and_beliefs). Culturally Deaf people have rules of etiquette for such things as, getting attention, walking through signed conversations, and otherwise politely negotiating a signing environment. It is also commonplace for them to arrive early for certain events, to ensure an optimum

One of the most crucial facts that hearing people must know about the Deaf community is that you don’t have to be deaf to be a part of the deaf community. “The Deaf Community is comprised of individuals, both deaf and hearing, who to varying degrees embrace particular community goals that come from Deaf cultural influences”. ("On Being Deaf — A Cultural View") Hearing people may receive little to no interaction with the Deaf community in their life. This can lead them to asking questions that may seem ridiculous to some people such as “can deaf people drive?” In fact deaf people have been allowed to legally drive in every state since the 1930’s. (Moore 220) And many acts and societies have been created to give deaf people the same opportunities and rights as all of the hearing people.

They have to communicate using their hands and faicial expressions, and have to find ways to talk with non-signing, hearing people. They face daily challenges that we wouldn’t even think about. They have to drive cars without being able to hear, they have to pay attention to their surroundings when driving and pay attention. But, deaf people are actually better drivers than hearing people becuase they are so used to paying so close attention to everything (Deaf Culture Facts That Might Surprise You). In order to understand non-signing hearing people, the deaf has to learn to read lips. This can be very difficult because some people talk very fast and deaf people cannot follow. Also, only about 30% of English Spoken words are distinguishible by lip reading

Disability is an impairment is a life changing condition that limits one’s physical or mental abilities. Disabilities comes in many forms such as blindness, hearing, speech disorder, loss of vision. and memory. As well as, chronic illness such as diabetes, HIV, obesity. Under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”) employers, cannot discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities when hiring, firing, job promotion, distribution of benefits and privileges. In addition, by law, employers must make reasonable effort to modify work equipment and job settings for people with disabilities. Such as job schedules, employee training and communication devices; without causing an undue hardship, significant difficulty

Take a second, close your eyes, and imagine silence. Nothing is going on around you; you can't even hear a pin drop. Not a sound to be heard for miles. You open your eyes expecting the world to come to life, and everything to breath wavelengths into your ears, but instead, you are met with an ocean of nothingness. People hustle about you, yelling at you to move out of their way, but still… nothing. This is the reality of a deaf person's world. Every day they wake up to this, and nothing more. When out in public, they must learn to communicate, to fend for themselves while the hearing go on with their lives as normal. We don't even realize how blessed we are as a hearing person, until it's gone. One way to dissolve this issue is by offering

The moment someone Deaf or hard of hearing had to type out their sentences to communicate with me, I came to the conclusion that I needed to educate others through my Graduation Project. After talking with many people, I discovered that there are many issues the Deaf face when finding jobs, let alone life-long careers. When a job is finally acquired, many different circumstances may come up which can be difficult. There is not much proof of discrimination by employers against the Deaf; however, high percentages of Deaf people who apply for interaction jobs will not receive anything back from an employer after an interview. The effects that this has on Deaf people can become extreme, especially when they dream to have a career. Some people,

Recently I attended a seminar for work, on childcare and development, where they discussed how to work with children with hearing disabilities. At this event there was a population of predominantly people who used American Sign Language as their primary language as opposed to hearing people speaking. I have had interactions with deaf people before but only on an informal level, because most of the deaf people I have

Being deaf means that you can not hear out of your ears. If a person is not able to hear out of their ears, it is not the end of the world because there is almost always a solution for everything. When someone is deaf, they are going to need to adapt to a new lifestyle and try to live a life as normal as possible. Many people who are deaf do not speak with their mouths, but with their hands. Sign Language is a common way for people who physically cannot speak or those that are deaf to communicate with family, friends, and the rest of the world. In order to adapt, a person must work around the disability and make the most of not being able to hear. Listening to music is still possible. Many who are deaf turn the volume of their music up so it is loud enough to feel the vibrations and beats from music and that is how they are able to listen to music. Watching television is not difficult, there is always the option of having the captions enabled so someone who is deaf or hard of hearing is aware of what the characters are saying and they will know what is happening in what they are watching. A few activities that can be difficult or seem impossible for a person who is deaf to complete would be going to a play or performance or trying to communicate with those who cannot sign. Reading lips are another way to communicate with others while being deaf. As difficult as it sounds, reading lips will get less challenging and will help someone who is deaf to communicate with those who cannot sign. Deafness is a disability that many deal with to this day and finding ways to live with being deaf like communicating in sign language inspire many to keep trying and they will be

Every citizen of the United States should be able to have equal access to communication and information. For many years deaf people did not have this opportunity and experienced oppression in a sense of inability to use their own language, which is a sign language. As well as not being able to use their language, they were not granted an opportunity to have access to information anywhere they went. Furthermore, a severe mistreat happened in the courts, where deaf people had to deal with unqualified interpreters, and as a result were unfairly charged or misjudged because of lack of communication. Another issue that deaf people encounter is the way people address them as "hearing impaired". This term is very offensive to them, as it focuses

Deaf or Hard of Hearing people face very many issue when it comes to pursuing a higher education. Teachers who do not speaking clear and in natural tones in class. The Schools don’t having enough interpreters for all the students with hard of hearing or deaf problems. They also face the problems of getting stuck in the back of the class where it is hard to see the interpreter which then they might miss part of what the instructor is saying or doing in class because of that issue. They also have to face the issue of learning English because ASL is completely different than English. ASL doesn’t use all the words we use to make sentence or to talk to people. They also face people looking at them different and treating them different because