I came across this News story today and after reading through it I was infuriated! Deaf or Death - In Drug Trial, Parents weigh Life vs. Hearing Loss. 

Parents are actually hesitating? Your child is dying, you have a life saving drug and you HAD to think about whether it's worth becoming deaf? 

Your child has bone cancer, you don't hesitate to amputate. Your child has ocular cancer, you don't hesitate to remove their eyes. But Whoa! Deafness, uhhhh.....

Here's some statements that irritated me:


“Hearing is such an important part of our quality of life,” Dr. King said. “It is a connection to the world.”



Parents of seriously ill children have told her that reading bedtime stories and lullabies are some of the remaining connections they share. “To risk taking that away is a big deal..."



The question, he said, for families: ”Where do you draw the line? Is it hearing loss, renal failure, infertility, cardiac failure?”



My answer would've been "There aren't any lines to draw! My baby's dying. Save 'em!" Period, we'll deal with the aftereffects later.


Then an online friend commented on a Facebook post I did on this story:


"Some parents need to see how well deaf people are doing"


EXCELLENT POINT!  Here's a video to show parents the potential Deaf people have! It's just a loss of hearing, not a loss of goals, life, living, and loving.

So there's no need to fear deafness. Sure it'll be hard work and frustration in the beginning, but so does every type of recovery from a disease.

So reach out to Deaf Advocacy Groups, Non-Profits, other Parents with Deaf children, and the Deaf Community itself!

Tracy,
One finds limits by pushing them" ~ Herbert Simon

As most of my readers know, I was born deaf and have worn Hearing Aids since I was two. I've had a Cochlear Implant for the last ten years as well.

As far back as I can remember, EVERY Audiologist I've been to didn't know how to Sign. Even the audiologist that was at my School for the Deaf didn't sign!

One would think that there would be deaf and hard of hearing clients who use sign language in need of hearing tests, hearing aids, and repairs?

So my question is for you Audiologists -

Why didn't you learn Sign Language when you entered a "Hearing Loss" field of work?

Is it from the Medical standpoint of "deafness needs to be fixed"?

Or the old outdated (and false) claim of "if the deaf learn to sign, they'll never learn to speak"?

I'm really curious to know what the reasons are!

As a client, being able to sign to an audiologist when you don't have your Cochlear Implant on would be so much easier!

Sure, I get an interpreter for these audiologist appointments, but it feels redundant to need one.

Tracy,

Well the audiology appointment was a bust! I was assured in several emails from Vocational Rehabilitation that the appointment, paperwork & an interpreter would be ready for me on the 3rd. (after a failed appointment last January due to no paperwork sent). My SSP (need an explanation?) picked me up & we drove an hour and half one way to the appointment. Upon arrival the Audiology Center informs me that my appointment was for the 5th! Sooo, back home I go and wait 2 days....

Thursday arrives, my SSP and I again make the long haul to the city. First there was no interpreter, I can understand that, it's hard to book one on short notice. We finally go in and sit with the Audiologist and she says "What can we do for you today?" So I explain the whole story again, my C.I. broke, need a replacement, VR sent me here.....

"Well all we have here from them is an authorization for a hearing test"
(I flash a look of "WTH" at my SSP)
"Let's go into the booth and test you then". She puts on headphones and tells me "Raise your hand when you hear anything"
Three minutes later she returns to the booth "Ok, we're all done"...I didn't raise my hand once!
"Yep, you're deaf"
"No shit Sherlock" I mutter....

Sooo, after I return home I fire off some e-mails to my VR Counselor & learned that she's now currently on a leave of absence and the new one was speechless at the lack of progress and confusion. So today (Friday) my new counselor has been making phone calls and e-mailing me and saying she's working on it. So I'm hoping better progress would be made here on out.

Now I wanted to share some results so far in the Poll I gave:

25% said "Cover Up"
56% said "Show Off"
19% said "Don't Care"

After sharing my last post on several forums I've had varying reasons ranging from "I want people to see me for ME and not my H.A. or C.I." to "If people don't see my C.I., how would they know they need to face me to talk to me?" Which are all valid reasons, and some even disagreed with my reasons for covering up. Sorry y'all I was talking from my own experiences growing up with H.A.s and all.

Now I'd like to expand the poll a bit if y'all don't mind:

Soooo I will update y'all any further news, but for now I'm stuck with the Tinnitus and "ear-worms"
Tracy,
One finds limits by pushing them" ~ Herbert Simon

Some of you may recall my C.I. broke last November. So I've been totally deaf for almost four months now (aside from the stupid Tinnitus noise). After a botched appointment in January, I'm finally going to the audiologist tomorrow (March 3rd)!  I do hope it's when I finally get a new C.I. and not just "now fill out this paperwork and we'll get started..." B.S.

If all goes well I'll be getting a new Advanced Bionics Naida in "Caribbean Blue", which is a bold switch for me. After years of "covering up" my hearing aids and my first C.I. was colored "Burnt Sienna" so it'd match my Brown hair, I've decided to just show it off!

"Why do people want to cover up their Hearing Aids or Cochlear Implants, and why do others show them off?"

What I've read in forums and groups and what I've experienced, the reason why people cover up boils down to two things which intertwine with each other:

• Insecurity - The user is insecure or ashamed of their deafness. They hide it to appear more "normal" to the rest of the world.
• Stigma - There's a stigma of inferiority that comes with wearing hearing aids. The world is full of ignorant people who stare, gawk, ask stupid questions and become bullies. Sometimes the user was pushed to feeling ashamed and insecure about their hearing aids/C.I.s.

It used to be that hearing aids were big and bulky and only available in one beige color; earmolds were big blobs of pink rubber; and cochlear implants had several parts to wear with lots of wires running all over. Nowadays, hearing aids, earmolds and cochlear implants are much smaller, come in a variety of colors and can be customized for the user! Check out this great site "Show Me Your Ears" of users decorating and showing off their "ears". There's even websites that sell "bling" for your hearing aid/cochlear implant, I love the one at SkinIt and wish they had one for "The Walking Dead". I'd probably will get the University of Arkansas one where my son is planning to attend after High School.

So what's your stance on this debate? Vote in the Poll:

My stance now is "Show it Off"! Firstly, it shows people that I'm Deaf and it's the reason why I'm "ignoring" them. Secondly, I don't give a rat's ass anymore if you stare (hell I can't even SEE you staring at me anymore). I'm open to answering questions and sating curiosity, but be prepared for sarcasm if you ask a stupid one, "Oh you're Deaf, lemme help, here's a Braille menu"

So...Hoping I'll be hearing you soon!
Tracy,
One finds limits by pushing them" ~ Herbert Simon

There's been several recent events that just irritated the hell out of me...

Snowstorm Press Conference

After the New York Mayor de Blassio Press Conference on the Snowstorm last week there's been several reporters writing about how "bizarre", "theatrics", "ridiculous" the ASL interpreter was. Some doubted if it was real, others mocked it.

Jonathan Lamberton, the Interpreter, explains, “I think ASL has typically been depicted to the public in the ‘nicer’ form that hearing people are able to use, and that deaf people typically use with hearing people. The ASL that deaf people use among each other hasn’t been seen on screen much so I think that’s part of the reason people reacted so strongly.”

Most of the "message" is conveyed through facial expressions and body language. If they had a timid, quiet interpreter, it'd be like listening to Ben Stein's monotonous lecture. "There's a snowstorm coming, do you understand? Anyone? Anyone?"

These hearing people need to mute their TVs and turn off the captioning and then try and tell me what's being said, the urgency and importance of the news? Can they? Seriously if these ignorant people were at a Deaf Club,, they'd freak out! They'd probably go in expecting it to be all quiet and noiseless *scoff* they'd be soooo wrong! Music blaring til it shakes the floor, people lively signing to each other, howls of laughter, floor stomping to get another's attention, and yes even yelling at them while vigorously waving. ASL is a beautiful, vibrant, lively, and visual language and can express far more than English can!


Medeas Movie

This movie was released in January. It's about a portrait of a rural family's inner lives and their relationships. The father is a stern, hard-working dairy farmer struggling to maintain control of his family. His wife, Christina who is deaf, retreats into herself, progressively disconnecting from him an their five children.

Now why would a movie about a deaf character irritate me? Because the actress who plays Christina is HEARING! They put a hearing actress into a deaf role! There's scores of deaf actors and actresses out there who can play the part and UNDERSTAND the role better too! What if someone decided to cast a white person, paint him black and put them in a African-American role? Can you imagine the shitstorm that would cause?

Am I the only one? No! Check out the #deaftalent Twitter feed and you'll see scores of Deaf people's outrage, concern, hurt and informative tweets. What made it worse is that Madeas removed all comments relating to #deaftalent off their Facebook page and they're upset with us! Seriously? Now THAT'S ignorant!

So yeah I'm irritated! Tired of the ignorance, mocking, and plain stupidity of some people! To these people...DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Learn about Deaf Culture, Sign Language, and Deaf Society as a whole before you jump to your lame conclusions! 

Right now I can think of a few "bizarre, ridiculous, lively, animated, overacted" cuss words for these dumbasses who call themselves reporters.

Tracy,
One finds limits by pushing them" ~ Herbert Simon

What is the fascination with Sign Language? The seamless motion of hands moving to convey understanding between Deaf people seem to have the "hearing" world enthralled. More and more people are wanting to learn ASL and I encourage that, but I do want to state some grievances and advice.

• Take a class from a Deaf teacher. What better way to learn than from a fluent Native Signer? Too often in colleges and schools these teaching jobs go to hearing people.
• Don't take a Sign Language class if you don't plan on being around Deaf people. One reason, simply put is "if you don't use it, ya lose it". I meet people now and again who say "oh I took Sign Language in High School, but now I don't remember any", then why did you take it? Secondly, if you're not around Deaf people you will not build up your "receptive" skills (watching others sign) as well as never understanding Deaf Culture in all it's glory.

• f you're a new student (Level One or Two) please do not assume you can start teaching others and start posting YouTube video lessons!! Too often I scroll through videos and see them signing a lot of basic words wrong! For example, the sign for "please" is a flat hand over the middle of your chest and moving it clockwise, but I've seen one user put her hand up on her shoulder! If this is a video assignment for homework for your class, please state so in the description.
• ASL (American Sign Language) Music Videos, they're great if they're done by Deaf perfomers who put a lot of time and effort and skill into making these videos. But are not appreciated when done by Hearing "wannabes". I don't mind those that just want to do it for their own entertainment but please put a disclaimer in your description that you're just doing it for fun. It really irks me the few hearing people out there stating "if you want more videos like this send $$", or getting accolades and recognition for their attempts. (I say attempts because some I see aren't really good signers in the first place). THIS is what a good ASL Video is like:

• Stop with the misconception that ASL is just a "translation" of English. It is in fact a recognized language with it's own grammar and syntax, rules, etc. It takes just as long to learn ASL as any other language like Spanish, German, etc.
• Don't assume that ASL is universal. Every country has it's own version of Sign Language. ASL isn't even universal across the United States! Every place has it's regional variant for a sign, just like English does. For example a Sub sandwich - Hoagie, Hero, Grinder, Po'Boy, Rocket, Blimpie, etc. 

Well there you have it. I'm not trying to discourage you from learning to Sign. I encourage it, we need more Signers out there!

Tracy,
One finds limits by pushing them" ~ Herbert Simon