Scrolling through my Tweets today I came across one that someone posted a picture of a Workshop they attended. The workshop asked "Imagine being Deaf and Blind" and participants who were sighted and hearing, responded:
Now I understand all these reactions as an "outsider's" view and the assumption of "sudden deafblindness". As a Deafblind person I want to show you the "insider" info.
First of all, Deafblindness is rarely a "sudden" thing. It's usually a slow process of having one (such as Deafness) then developing the other (Blindness) over time, or vice versa.
As a Deafblind person since birth, I don't associate myself with any of those words listed, and knowing my friends who are also Deafblind, I know they don't either! So here's a better list:
Sure, we all have moments of loneliness, that's just human nature. There's moments of seclusion, sure, that's just the nature of the beast. But we have a lot of technology that helps us avoid that and fosters inclusion into regular society. We have SSPs and Intervenors to facilitate between our worlds. We have assistive products to adapt to our lives. And lastly, yes we do have "lives", jobs, families, hobbies and the like.
So before you automatically jump to the pitiful words, treat them as everyone else in any other "minority" group. Educate yourself first before assuming "that's what they feel", "that's what they need", or "that's what they'd want".
Tracy,
"One finds limits by pushing them" ~ Herbert Simon
- Locked In
- Frightened
- Different
- Lonely
- Secluded
- Misunderstood
- Scary
- Panic
- Dependent
- Unexpected
Now I understand all these reactions as an "outsider's" view and the assumption of "sudden deafblindness". As a Deafblind person I want to show you the "insider" info.
First of all, Deafblindness is rarely a "sudden" thing. It's usually a slow process of having one (such as Deafness) then developing the other (Blindness) over time, or vice versa.
As a Deafblind person since birth, I don't associate myself with any of those words listed, and knowing my friends who are also Deafblind, I know they don't either! So here's a better list:
- Unique
- Determined
- Independent
- Adventurous
- Connected
- Adept
- Happy
Sure, we all have moments of loneliness, that's just human nature. There's moments of seclusion, sure, that's just the nature of the beast. But we have a lot of technology that helps us avoid that and fosters inclusion into regular society. We have SSPs and Intervenors to facilitate between our worlds. We have assistive products to adapt to our lives. And lastly, yes we do have "lives", jobs, families, hobbies and the like.
So before you automatically jump to the pitiful words, treat them as everyone else in any other "minority" group. Educate yourself first before assuming "that's what they feel", "that's what they need", or "that's what they'd want".
Tracy,
"One finds limits by pushing them" ~ Herbert Simon
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