What matters deafness of the ears, when the mind hears?

Those of us who are merely deaf, yes, merely deaf, should read this article.

We are merely deaf. It provides some perspective.

Those in the field say deaf-blind children are fully capable of learning once someone figures out how each child communicates. Some, such as Alex, use violent rocking to communicate; others use another activity such as jumping. Children can learn to communicate by using sign language, done in the palm of their hand.

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Irony of ironies. 

Babel, a best picture Oscar nominee, is a multilanguage movie that tackles communication problems. Its characters, including a deaf Japanese girl who cannot speak, desperately try to communicate with one another. But, ironically, the movie fails to reach a significant part of its audience in Japan. Deaf people who might be especially interested in seeing the movie will discover that there are no subtitles for the scenes spoken in Japanese.

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I don’t know how common all-deaf congregations are, but this is interesting.

It turns out her last congregation (actually I think her only one) where she worked for at least 20 years was a deaf congregation. Anyway, she taught our congregants the beginning of the "Shema" (Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is One ") using signs she developed with her congregation.  Her sign  for "hear" in this case was ( I believe) a gentle upward tapping over the heart with the open right hand, moving to the throat then slightly diagonally toward the right ear then up over the head while raising her eyes and head slightly.  

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Actually, what caught my eye was the comment following the blog post on how "It’s so sad that Hearing families put the burden of communication on their Deaf child. Many of these Hearing parents claim they would “do anything” to help their Deaf child, including carving up their child’s head with CIs. But they still refuse to sign, because it’s “too hard.”

True, so true.

One common thread I see among hearing parents is that they have a desire to communicate with their deaf child. I wonder if most of us have parents who can sign in ASL. It may be too premature of an question because many of us grew up in a generation where sign language was forbidden so it may not be a fair question. However I do know that many deaf people learned ASL at some time in their lifetime.

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For years, I had the idea my hearing loss falls into the "moderate to severe" range.

Scrap that.

My new and, erm, improved status is now as follows:

A short, beautifully written personal essay on being deaf and being as fully human as anyone else. 

I am stone-cold Deaf. I do not consider myself to be disabled. I can read and write far better than the average person at my age. I can do anything just as well as any average hearing person. The difficulties I have with being Deaf is how people judge and treat me. 

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