Have you ever wondered what it was like to hear only silence 24/7? To speak with your hands, body gestures, facial expressions? It's fascinating! It's probably a common question that people have at least once in their life asked themselves. "What if I was deaf, what would it be like?" I have many friends who are either hard of hearing or are deaf and I know sign language. I enjoy my time with them very much even though I'm still learning many new signs every single time I meet up with them. It's one of the best experiences to be in a room full of people who are signing, who make the loudest noises but cannot hear them. They're laughs just echo and their voices fill the room when they speak or try to speak. But something I've always wondered... what is it like being in a public school with hearing kids and growing up that way as a deaf child? What is it like in the everyday work place a deaf worker while your coworkers are probably prominently hearing? What is it like to be a deaf parent to hearing kids and how do their kids grow up learning that their parents can't hear? How does it affect them? Mainly, what is it like to live in a hearing world while all you hear is silence? In my experiences with speaking with my HH (Hard of Hearing) and deaf friends is that while they grow up there are many frustrating moments in their life constantly asking themselves why they can't be like the hearing kids ( the "normal" kids)? And sometimes how HH and the deaf grow to hate the hearing world. It used to be in my assumption that maybe they all hated hearing... that deep down in all of them there was a part that just hated us and envied as much to hate. But this was definitely proven to be totally wrong. There are many loving and kind HH and deaf people and they love their lives, it would be really interesting to be able to write a paper to maybe clear up some assumptions that some people may have about them and be able to discover more about their lives for myself. How their life experiences growing up as a HH or deaf kid compares to my life growing up as a hearing kid.
Thanks for reading! Hope this raises some questions of your own, maybe? Feel free to comment them!
-Christina Williams
Christina, what an interesting topic! How did you come to know many HH and deaf friends? I've also learned a little bit of ASL because my three year old son deals with a significant speech disorder, so we've taught him some ASL to communicate better with him. I really only know the signs that are pertinent to his daily routines but have a lingering fascination with the language. I often wonder how people who communicate differently than the norm deal with the frustration of not always or easily being understood. Have you noticed that the HH and deaf communities are supportive of each other?
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to see how you continue to refine and focus this topic into a sustainable, narrowed research inquiry.