Saturday, June 6, 2009

Being a Deaf Driver

Being deaf and a driver, there are some things to keep in mind.

1) We often can't hear sirens right away, and I know that when I got my license that was a voiced concern. As soon as I am made aware of the siren, I pull over.

2) Some states provide special license plates so that police officers are aware that there is a deaf driver in the vehicle. For Arizona, there was an H at the beginning of the license plate number.

3) Check your license requirements. For IL, because of my deafness the state required that I drive a vehicle that had sideview mirrors on both sides of the vehicle. To be honest, I don't think I've seen a car that was meant to only have 1 sideview mirror! On my NY license, it had on the back that I was deaf.

4) If you do get pulled over, immediately communicate to the officer that you are deaf. I am able to at least converse if I am given the chance to ask for repetition, so they don't have to mess with the pen and paper.

5) I fail the DUI walk in a straight line test while 150% sober, so any officer worth his salt will have his breathilizer handy. Or better yet- DON'T DRINK and DRIVE!

6) I fail the CDL hearing test in order to pass the Dept of Transportation Physical exam. At an old job we had physicals given onsite to our students and the Dr. gave me the test, as everyone was curious. Nice to know I can't be a pilot, or a trucker.


I am glad for the priviledge to drive. There are at least 26 countries according to the World Federation of the Deaf that do not allow deaf people to obtain a drivers license.

I can't hear in the dark.... but I see stars

I thought I'd do another entry on lipreading. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember it's such a foreign concept to a world that revolves around sound. While lip reading is an attempt to fill in the pieces not heard, the more accurate term of my "listening" experience would be


"Speechreading: a term coined and used by professionals working with deaf and hard of hearing individuals, is a much broader activity, in which individuals utilize all available clues to understand what a person is saying. Speechreading does include lipreading, but also capitalizes on gestures and body language, facial expressions, situational clues, linguistic factors and any auditory input that is available to the individual." - Kaplan, H. 1996.

I would love to see an MRI of my brain someday. I already know I have huge gaps when it comes to hearing, and other functions, including my balance and sense of smell. However, I am overly sensitive to touch and actually have overall 20/10 vision (only 1 bad eye, go figure!). When looking at the definition of speechreading, this would make sense. I use these 2 senses much more acutely and more deliberately compared to others. They are the primary way I give my world meaning.

In the same vein, I am a really good guesser. I have to be! Much of speech conversation is contextual. I urge you to make a list of a scenario, say eating at a restaurant. Now make a list of any of the common spoken interactions you might have with your waiter over the hour that you're in the restaurant. There are some you expect to come at the beginning, such as drink orders. You'd expect a dessert order or a "are you ready for the check" at the end of the meal.
You may be surprised how quickly that list of normal interactions may grow.

Now imagine that a waiter comes along and says something completely out of the ordinary to the table, like "I won the lottery!" I can pretty much guarantee that I'd have no clue what the person said the first time I "heard" it. That sentence does not compute into my memory bank of typical restaurant interactions. Once the confusion registered, I would probably need to ask for a repeat/or clarification now that my computation did not register a logical auditory match.

This is just one example, but there is a memory bank for virtually any set of experienced spoken interactions. I freely admit that I do horribly in situations like the grocery store, at noisy restaurants by myself, and airplanes/airports.