In conjunction with Deaf Awareness Month, discuss some famous deaf people who have helped to make history. If you're hearing impaired yourself, give us a sense of what your experience is like, so we can better appreciate it.
I think it's important for people to be aware that not every auditory disability is about hearing acuity, just as not every visual disability is related to the eyes.
I have low vision, and better than average hearing acuity. Despite popular myths, my hearing acuity has nothing to do with my vision loss, it's always been like that. What most people fail to realize is just how much of a role the brain plays in hearing and seeing.
For most people, interpreting what they see or hear is automatic. They generally don't have to actively think about it, and they assume that it's the same for everyone else. However, people whose brains differ from the norm, such as in dyslexia, central auditory processing disorders, autism, or traumatic brain injury, may process things differently or with greater difficulty. These differences are often perceived as laziness, stupidity, or deception, which is enormously frustrating for everyone involved.
As I stated before, I have fairly good hearing in the sense of acuity, but my ability to filter and interpret what I hear is much worse than average. Despite lifelong effort, I find it very difficult to tune out background noise. It is also difficult to explain to people that certain sound, even if they are not particularly loud, can cause me extreme discomfort. Most people are familiar with the "fingernails on a blackboard" phenomenon, but I experience that effect with a much wider range of noises, including high-pitched noises that most people my age and older can't hear any more.
While I can hear and speak, I find it difficult to effectively *communicate* what I think and what I know using speech. I am much more effective at communicating using writing. This is partly a function of time, and partly a function of hearing. Let me try to explain what it's like for me to have a spoken conversation.
I might hear all of the words, but in my mind they get jumbled up and out of order, and I have to put them back in the right order in my head. By the time I've done that, the person with whom I am trying to communicate has probably said something else.
I hear all of the sounds of the words, but they don't separate or congeal into recognizable English words, and it sounds like the person is speaking a foreign language. I have to repeat it back to myself in my head and try to put the gaps and connections in the right places. Tryre ading thiss enten ceand maybe you'll getan ideao fwhat Imean.
Outside/background sounds can interfere with what I'm hearing, and either cover it up or make it hard to concentrate.
And on top of all of that, people usually expect me to speak back to them. When I say something in writing, it's easier for me to think about what I'm saying and review it, and write it out at my own pace. When I'm speaking, each sound disappears nearly as soon as I make it, and I don't always remember what I've said at the beginning of the sentence as I get to the end, so I leave things out, repeat myself, or get things totally scrambled.
If I don't want to talk to you, it's not because I don't like you. On the contrary, it's probably because I *do* like you and want to make sure that I communicate with you in the most effective way possible, which for me is writing.
amused