American Sign Language

[guartz]

Aha! I now remember. This was in a House episode.

[Daydreamer]

I'm going to go ahead and state that my only experience with the deaf community was 1 semester of ASL my last year in college (about a year ago).


First off, chances of cochlear working are much much much higher when the person getting them is under 2 years old, which makes sense if you realize that this is the age of learning a language in general, so if a child hears sounds (even if they aren't the same ones hearing people hear) then they will figure out how to interpret them just like we do. Also, I am pretty sure the success rate of them working in general is MUCH higher than 15% if the person is younger, but I have no proof to back this up, this is just me trying to remember stuff from my class.

Seriously though, as others have said, if the majority of people can do something that someone else can't then that qualified as a disability. I am not saying people that can't hear can't lead as full of a like as people that can, that'd be retarded. All I am saying is that not being able to hear is a disability, like it or not. There are many more instances when being able to hear would help you over not. Hell, the only real reason I can see not hearing being a good thing would be something like having a friend force you to a britney spears concert.

[archibaldcrane]

Ever think you being placed in different classes was for the teacher's sake, and not a slight at you?

If your classroom has steps going up to it, and a kid in a wheelchair wants to take the class, you build a ramp, you don't tell them to fuck off.

Schools should be accommodating to disabilities. I'm not exactly sure how they do the whole "incorporating deaf students into hearing classrooms thing"...erm, actually yeah that's what my old gf did - she translated for students. Sat in their classrooms, signed what the teacher was saying, voiced for the student. The fact that Zansho had to fight his school for two years to get into an AP class is fucking retarded, but Zansho that doesn't give you the right to establish such an "us vs. them" attitude towards hearing people. When I say "you have a disability" it's not me saying "you're incapable" - it's just me saying "you can't hear". I'm not going to hire you as a sound mixer, but you're capable of doing most stuff - your limbs work, your brain works, etc.

(I have found that the written english on deaf forums is frequently confusing and/or atrocious though)

[Darus Grey]

If your classroom has steps going up to it, and a kid in a wheelchair wants to take the class, you build a ramp, you don't tell them to fuck off.

Maybe where you live...

[Zansho]

There's a reason for the atrocious English skills that you see on deaf forums. You're actually reading ASL. ASL has no written language, so we borrow the English language for writing purposes, and write it out in ASL.

This may sound weird to you guys, but it makes perfect sense to me. I too, cringe at it occasionally, and I also feel that it contributes to the misnomer that "deaf = dumb" idea, but they're communicating as best as they can, and yet they're getting slapped around for it.

Let's see you try to sign perfect ASL with a deaf person, shall we? I bet you anything that most of the deaf folks you'll meet are pretty tolerant of hearing people butchering their language, and even "feed" them signs.

I apologize for me confusing your use of the word "disability." As it pertains to me, it means that I'm handicapped, incapable, not able to do ANYTHING. I've been told "no" most of my life, and my life experience has taught me that I have to fight for what I want. Most deaf folks don't do that. They'll just take whatever is given, and walk away.

There IS one positive thing about being deaf though. Due to my disability, my ENTIRE college education was paid for by the state of Texas. :D

[oldoldman]

There IS one positive thing about being deaf though. Due to my disability, my ENTIRE college education was paid for by the state of Texas. :D

If you were really a proud deaf person who was no different than us normies you wouldn't accept the Government's charity like that.

[Zansho]

Like you would refuse a free college education. From the state's (Texas) standpoint, they felt this is a good way to sort of even the playing field for deaf individuals. They paid for the degree, granted. However, I did the work, and earned the degree myself.

And being 17 and just out of high school with a few scholarships to my name, that was a fucking attractive option.

[oldoldman]

Like you would refuse a free college education. From the state's (Texas) standpoint, they felt this is a good way to sort of even the playing field for deaf individuals. They paid for the degree, granted. However, I did the work, and earned the degree myself.

And being 17 and just out of high school with a few scholarships to my name, that was a fucking attractive option.

Why would someone with no disabilities need the playing field evened?

[Seraph]

I was not allowed to take any driver's education classes at my local high school due to my "disability" posing an "inordinate" insurance risk. I was tasked to special education classes, even though it was obvious that my testing scores showed I really should have been in AP classes. It wasn't until my parents and I fought for my right to take those classes for 2 years that I finally was given a chance to do so. People see a deaf person, and automatically assume the worst, and that we are poor souls in need of saving.

I really don't want to be a dick, but I am calling bullshit on this. Being deaf means you are unable to hear sirens, warning signals, and other cars beeping at you. I would say there is a definite elevated insurance risk there. Not necessarily grounds to not be able to drive though.

[Cesaria]

If your classroom has steps going up to it, and a kid in a wheelchair wants to take the class, you build a ramp, you don't tell them to fuck off.

Schools should be accommodating to disabilities. I'm not exactly sure how they do the whole "incorporating deaf students into hearing classrooms thing"...erm, actually yeah that's what my old gf did - she translated for students. Sat in their classrooms, signed what the teacher was saying, voiced for the student. The fact that Zansho had to fight his school for two years to get into an AP class is fucking retarded, but Zansho that doesn't give you the right to establish such an "us vs. them" attitude towards hearing people. When I say "you have a disability" it's not me saying "you're incapable" - it's just me saying "you can't hear". I'm not going to hire you as a sound mixer, but you're capable of doing most stuff - your limbs work, your brain works, etc.

(I have found that the written english on deaf forums is frequently confusing and/or atrocious though)

When I've covered in schools that have had hearing impaired children (we don't have many special schools around here - long since closed in the name of "inclusion" or "budget"... you decide which) they've either had signing teaching assistants, or the children (rightly or wrongly) have had cochlear implants done plus the schools have installed an amplification system in certain classrooms so, while you get to prat around with a headset on pretending to be Madonna, it helps the kids to hear what you're saying better (as well as obvious things like facing the child in question, speaking clearly and making sure you're near them when speaking etc etc etc - stuff you tend to do anyway when you know a kid's got issues hearing).

I've also done a lot of work in one school which is utterly fucking inspirational. Because they're SO inclusive (also have a lot of autistic children, many of whom are non-verbal and communicate using sign and picture symbols) they took the decision to make the entire community signing - they sign and speak in assemblies, they sign and sing songs and they always delight in teaching me various signs whenever I'm in there - it's quite a sight to see 300 4-8 year olds all able to sign Good Morning, sing and sign together and finger spell and the like as well - it goes through the whole school and I always feel slightly left out as I don't know much sign language when I go there!

Got a lot of sympathy though - I'm developing real issues with my hearing that I can't get any bloody sense from the doctor about so I'm really getting quite worried about losing it - and realizing just how hard it is to function with only half working hearing.

[Cyn]

Got a lot of sympathy though - I'm developing real issues with my hearing that I can't get any bloody sense from the doctor about so I'm really getting quite worried about losing it - and realizing just how hard it is to function with only half working hearing.

I think I'd rather lose my eyesight than my hearing. Even though I'm a event lighting designer and would lose my career if I couldn't see lol.

[pohibaba]

I think I'd rather lose my eyesight than my hearing. Even though I'm a event lighting designer and would lose my career if I couldn't see lol.

I've heard a lot of people say this, but I don't think they understand all the implications of losing your sight. It's completely possible to live a "normal" life as a deaf person, but if you lost your sight you'd lose much more than your career, you'd most likely lose your independence.

[Cesaria]

My mum's got a friend who's blind - who hitch hikes from her rural village into the city for work each morning, gets across a city centre and it's ensuing badly planned road system, rides pillion on her husband's motor bike, and has a weaving business - if you met her and didn't know she was blind to spot her little coping tricks like running a finger along the edge of walls discreetly to find doorways - you would quite seriously take a long long while to click that she had any issue at all.

I'm just appreciating my hearing more and more (got very reduced hearing in one ear and the other comes and goes) as it gets more and more difficult to function at work with random classes where I don't get the chance to get tuned in to the kids speech as I'm always getting confronted with different sets of kids. It's bloody hard going even just losing a few levels of it.

[Darus Grey]

I've heard a lot of people say this, but I don't think they understand all the implications of losing your sight. It's completely possible to live a "normal" life as a deaf person, but if you lost your sight you'd lose much more than your career, you'd most likely lose your independence.

I've had two conditions during my life in which I was unable to see for a couple weeks(got hit across my face at the eyes with a sharp metal object and had my eyes bandaged as a precaution), and another where for 3 months I was temporarily deaf(and I still have very loud permanent tinitis from the incidient...).

I found it easier to adjust to being blind than being deaf. I spend most my time at home or at my university, and I didn't have much trouble navigating both blinded. On the otherhand, losing TV/movies(if given a choice between watching them and hearing them...hearing every-time), music, and something I do for nearly 8 hours a day...listening to public radio, was far more crippling to my quality of life. Granted without sight you lose video-games for the most part...but in terms of my over-all life I can live without them, I'd simply choose different activities.

Being deaf would also cripple my career, a blind professor is doable, a deaf one is not(school is not going to keep a permanent interpurter on-hand for you unless you have like 20yrs tenure or are some super-star, and it would significantly slow down answering student questions). Oh that and I'm a linguist...not being able to hear cripples 3 major spheres of the field, where being blind just means using braille when dealing with orthography.

Anyways...if given some bizarre choice, I'm fairly sure I'd rather be blind as well.

P.S. Zansho is totally inconsistent in his idealology.

[Zansho]

I really don't want to be a dick, but I am calling bullshit on this. Being deaf means you are unable to hear sirens, warning signals, and other cars beeping at you. I would say there is a definite elevated insurance risk there. Not necessarily grounds to not be able to drive though.

And people who play loud music in their cars, text and twitter on their cell phones, and read/shave/apply makeup on their morning commutes are any better? I'd start taking a long hard look around you while you drive, and I bet you anything most people are doing what I just said above. Oh wait, you don't have to. You can hear 'em!!

Ambulances and other emergency vehicles have FLASHING LIGHTS (omg, what a concept) for a reason. Visibility, and guess what. My eyes DO function.

[Zansho]

I've had two conditions during my life in which I was unable to see for a couple weeks(got hit across my face at the eyes with a sharp metal object and had my eyes bandaged as a precaution), and another where for 3 months I was temporarily deaf(and I still have very loud permanent tinitis from the incidient...).

I found it easier to adjust to being blind than being deaf. I spend most my time at home or at my university, and I didn't have much trouble navigating both blinded. On the otherhand, losing TV/movies(if given a choice between watching them and hearing them...hearing every-time), music, and something I do for nearly 8 hours a day...listening to public radio, was far more crippling to my quality of life. Granted without sight you lose video-games for the most part...but in terms of my over-all life I can live without them, I'd simply choose different activities.

Being deaf would also cripple my career, a blind professor is doable, a deaf one is not(school is not going to keep a permanent interpurter on-hand for you unless you have like 20yrs tenure or are some super-star, and it would significantly slow down answering student questions). Oh that and I'm a linguist...not being able to hear cripples 3 major spheres of the field, where being blind just means using braille when dealing with orthography.

Anyways...if given some bizarre choice, I'm fairly sure I'd rather be blind as well.

P.S. Zansho is totally inconsistent in his idealology.

P.S. You're clueless about how interpreters work. Your university should have a staff of interpreters for their deaf students, and I don't see any reason why they wouldn't provide an interpreter to accommodate your needs.

Blind folks also use ASL for their communication needs. Even more so if they're also deaf as well.

My ideology is mine, and mine alone. You may think I'm inconsistent, and you know what? Just because you've been temporarily "disabled" doesn't mean you've walked a mile in my figurative shoes.

[oldoldman]

And people who play loud music in their cars, text and twitter on their cell phones, and read/shave/apply makeup on their morning commutes are any better? I'd start taking a long hard look around you while you drive, and I bet you anything most people are doing what I just said above. Oh wait, you don't have to. You can hear 'em!!

Ambulances and other emergency vehicles have FLASHING LIGHTS (omg, what a concept) for a reason. Visibility, and guess what. My eyes DO function.

They can turn their radios and phones off, can you turn your ears on? I have a severely dampened sense of smell, does it affect my everyday life? No. But is it a disability? Yes.
You are disabled, and have a disadvantage (however slight) whether you want to admit it or not. No one thinks less of you because of your deafness, but rather because you are such a prick.

[Zansho]

And I'm honestly supposed to care about what some dude on a internet forum whom I'll probably never meet thinks of me?

Right.

Just because I don't agree or conform with what the majority of you think, it makes me a prick. Just because I expressed what the minority (the deaf community) feels about cochlear implants, makes me a prick. Just because I stick to my own personal beliefs, makes me a prick?

Then I'll gladly be a prick. Good day to you sir.

[Conrad]

No, it's because you have misinformed reasons for your personal beliefs and are acting like a bigot towards the hearing community. Doctors and implants aren't evil, the hearing community doesn't have it out for deaf people, and there is no reason to ostracize someone for having a fleeting desire to hear and make their life easier. You may be able to do everything a hearing person does...except hear. However able-bodied you are despite that, you still have a disability and the ability to hear would make it that much easier to live a normal life.

[Norellicus]

And people who play loud music in their cars, text and twitter on their cell phones, and read/shave/apply makeup on their morning commutes are any better? I'd start taking a long hard look around you while you drive, and I bet you anything most people are doing what I just said above. Oh wait, you don't have to. You can hear 'em!!

Ambulances and other emergency vehicles have FLASHING LIGHTS (omg, what a concept) for a reason. Visibility, and guess what. My eyes DO function.

How about when you're approaching an intersection, your light is green and you're doing 40mph, and there's a fire truck coming racing down the cross street around a blind corner?

Pretty sure you won't be seeing that one until it's too late

Also, emergency vehicles have sirens loud enough to penetrate any amount of noise a person can reasonably generate from their cars, I guarantee it. If you're listening to music at or above 120-130 dBA (the power of your average ambulance siren) then you're probably already deaf beyond the point that you can reasonably hear the sirens anyway.