Thursday, May 14, 2009

Deaf Do's and Dont's

Every person is different, and some things will be different for sign only deaf compared to lipreading and oral deaf. Here's just a few of my personal Do's and Dont's based on experience.


Do:-

- Speak in a conversational tone. I learned to read lips moving at regular pace, not super exaggerated or yelling.

- Make eye contact with me. That's how I can tell we're having a conversation!

- Be attentive in your body language. I can't always pick up the smaller vocal intonations that go along the flow of a conversation, and will trust your body language before your voice.

- Speak Directly to me, instead of nominating someone in the group as an "interpreter"

- Take turns talking in a group, and give me a chance to respond - I can only read one set of lips at a time




Don't:
- Throw something to get my attention. Have some respect for my safety - I walk to you to talk, please do the same to me.

- Cover your mouth with your hands or other objects while talking to me.

- Tell me "Never Mind" or "I'll Tell you later" if I ask you to repeat something. No doubt you'll forget, and I'll just be even more frustrated.

- Get mad at me for leaving the group and sitting by myself near the front at a gathering with speakers and no captions. Sitting in the back where I can't hear is a waste of my time, and you won't appreciate my interruptions to ask what is happening.

- Touch my hearing aid without asking. It squeals in my ear, not yours, and is very distracting and annoying.

- Expect me to hear you well if you are in a dark corner, in the shadows, or in another room. Save your breath!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Deaf Culture Controversy

Galludet University is considered by most one of the most visible movers and shakers of the deaf culture and community in the United States. An article came out by the Washington Post in 2006, and still to this day I keep coming back to it because it really hits home for me. Click here for the Article

The essence of the article looks at the debate of deaf "purists" against those who acknowledge their deafness but are able to integrate into the larger society by use of voice and assistive technology. Basically, their claim against Fernandez was that she was not "deaf enough". I continue to this day to be completely outraged at this mindset.

I had my own personal experiences with this while living in Rochester, NY. I moved there partially because Rochester has the highest number of deaf per capita in the United States. I grew up only knowing 1 other deaf person for the early early years of my life. After moving to Phoenix with my family when I was 10, I was the only deaf person I knew, period.

It is hard to explain what it feels like to be singled out because I was deaf, but then to also try to fit in with others and be held back. I had speech therapy almost every day. Getting pulled out of class and having to miss recess was just the beginning. The classrooms tried to make me wear an FM Loop System, until I flat out refused to put it on. Imagine wearing a black taped coil the thickness of your thumb around your neck, and the teacher having to wear a special microphone. At 10 years old in a new city, this was overwhelming.

I wanted to play sports like other kids, but I had to be careful when I wore helmets playing softball because the sweat was bad for the hearing aid. I wore latex protectors, but they only did so much. Even being able to hear the coaches from the outfield was difficult. I am a balance hazard to myself on a bike or skates, and have had more than one run in with the black asphalt or a concrete wall.

Back to Rochester. I was trying to brush back up on my ASL, and so I went to the Rochester School for the Deaf to meet with a teacher and see if she had room in her class for me. Her response when I tried to communicate with my rusty sign language skills was to huff away when I had to resort to finger spelling, and when I was talking as I was signing, she looked absolutely mortified.

I am grateful to Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf for helping to fund part of my graduate education. I got a federal grant to cover 2/3rds of my grad tuition, since I qualified for their severely deaf cap. But I was shunned there, too. I had a student in my class who used an interpreter, and they communicated with me as well. They were helpful to have in case I missed part of the lecture, I could look and the signing usually had a 5-6 second delay, helping to fill in the gaps. But when I tried to make friends, they were not willing to compromise at all. Some hearing folks were curious about sign language and liked to practice on them, but it wasn't the same as feeling diverse friendship that I do among other different groups of people.

Whew. Mostly, I think my resentment comes from the need for people to feel like they have to define themselves by their deafness. They feel threatened when someone challenges their comfort zone and boundaries, when really its just perspective.

For me, I get more self conscious when people attribute some of my behavior to other possible causes, because I don't always broadcast that I'm deaf. I have been told more than once that at first impression I can come off snobbish because I don't talk a lot in a large group; this is just simply because it takes so much effort and concentration to follow the conversation, there's no way I can stay with it enough to even join in. Any groups over 3-4 people (and this being people I know really well) can be exhausting. Add in a dim restaurant environment, and I might as well be playing Balderdash, and just have random one liner conversations.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

What is a T-coil?

When I get requests I will definitely get timely posts up - for now, I'm not sure what you the reader may or may not know about hearing aids in general, so here is a little bit of information about a feature on most hearing aids I find absolutely essential for successful communication via telephone and listening to my iPod.

In my previous post, I mentioned my purchase of a T-Coil Headphone. What is a T-Coil?

This link from Galludet University (a deaf only university in Washington DC) provides a really good general overview, as well as highlighting some technology issues that I personally experienced as a kid in the classroom.

Product Review: T Coil Headphones

One of the greatest frustrations with many assistive hearing products is the relatively few producers, which result in higher prices and often, mediocre or lower quality. I was pleasantly surprised to find the market is slowing changing when I ran across TecEar (www.tecear.com)


I recently purchased one of their iNoiZ-Music T-coil inductive ear hook stereo earphones. The price was the lowest I've ever had to pay for this type of earphone, by almost double the previous lowest price!

I have been extremely pleased with the high quality of the t-coil. The only complaint I would have would be the the coil is literally just inches thick, and has a tendency to get caught in my hair or fall off the back of my ear if I move quickly.

Since I only wear one aid, I purchased the Mono model. Shortly after my package arrived in the mail, I was showing off the t-coil at work to a friend who has experience in mixing tracks and recordings. That is incidentally what gave me the idea for this blog, since most music is mixed and balanced to be played in stereo, or heard by both ears.

The conversation about how the music sounds in mono versus stereo hearing might just be the next blog post!

An Exercise in Lip Reading

This is what I get asked about by nearly everyone almost immediately after they learn I am deaf. How does it work? DOES it actually work? Can you hear me when I cover my mouth and mumble? To the last one - of course I *hear* you, but what you are saying does not come out as an intelligent, understandable language.

I found this exercise on the website for Australia's Royal Institute for the Deaf and Blind. Just a sidenote, both Australia and the UK are light years ahead of the USA in terms of advocacy, education, awareness, and resources for the deaf community.

From: http://www.ridbc.org.au/

Lipreading

Only 50% of the English language is visible on the lips. Lip reading is very difficult, and requires great concentration. People with hearing impairment sometimes use lip reading to supplement their existing hearing.

Having a hearing impairment doesn't always mean that everything gets quieter. Often, a hearing impairment means that you miss out on certain sounds, but can hear others. For instance, you might be able to hear vowels like "o" and "u" (which are lower frequency) but miss sounds like "s" or "f" (which are higher frequency).


Read the following sentence, preferably outloud to a friend or family member:

"...en ou av iid co-o-rin tur o sh"


What do you think that sentence was supposed to mean?


It means:
"When you have finished colouring, turn over your sheet."




New Blog

I started a separate blog since I really feel compelled to speak up as an advocate for those who see life in a different way as a result of hearing loss, but also not from a "woe is me, I'm deaf" perspective. Up until Thursday night of this week, I had not met another at least 50% or more deaf person who is able to function and interact in "normal" society. It can be extremely lonely at times.

Ignorance can be uncompassionate. So this is my way to give yet another glimpse into my world, but also provide information for those curious about deafness, deaf culture, resources, and anything else that comes up. Feel free to submit questions and I'll happily address them.

Thanks for continuing to read!