A deaf Day (Family and/or friends)

[RonJaxon]

This is something I've done a few times with a couple of friends and one of my ex-girlfriends. Each time I did this was for a different reason. The first time was to a friend as a bet (Just a friendly bet). The second time was when another friend was genuinely curious as to what it might be like to be deaf. The ex-girlfriend "tried" to do it when I was getting frustrated with her for not really being able to understand some of the things I go through. She'd do things like stand in front of the TV and I miss the CC. Talk with her hand over her mouth and so forth. You know, those annoying things people sometimes do. Also keep in mind that in the ex-girlfriend case it was during a time that I was really struggling to come to terms with losing my hearing.

Anyway here's what I mean by "Deaf Day". They spend the entire day deaf day with their ears plugged. You can find some that block the hearing better then others. They'll still be able to hear a little but not enough to really do things like talk on the phone. IN the house they were to have no music on and the TV muted. When my friend did it (He's a gutsy guy) we actually went out to a bar. He wore the inner ear pugs and the headphones type. The head phones was actually his idea. He said something along the lines of, "Well, I've seen people stare at your hearing aids before too".

The rules where that they can't use their ears for anything unless it's an absolute emergency. Got a phone call? find a way to answer it. That was a funny one when my friend wanted to order a pizza and asked me how he can do it. He tried the TTY but they hung up on him. So he learned what it's like to have to ask someone to make the call for him. When he had a phone call he had to have someone translate it for him.

The real funny part was at the bar and my friend wanted me to make sure no one else comes in because he had to go.. well number 2... and didn't want anyone to hear it and he can't hear if anyone comes in. I laughed hard at that because I knew how he feels. I'm sure I'm not the only one who keeps peaking out the crack in the stall door.

The friend that went to the bar and all that told me how much he didn't realize effected me. To this days he'll sometimes comment about how he can't understand how we do it.

Notice I'm only mentioning things that happened to this one friend. That's because he's the only one that lasted for the most part of the day. My ex girlfriend only last about 2 hours before she had to take the plugs out to make a phone call. The one I made the bet with didn't even make it through one movie we where watching on TV. He complained that the words went by too fast.

I know they do things like this for the blind where the go around town blind folded and use the cane. I just wonder if any of you have ever done this about deafness too.

Ron Jaxon

 

[Hear Again]

After I lost my hearing, I did the same thing with my parents and family members. Since I'm totally deafblind, I had them wear a blindfold and earplugs. I also had them travel around the neighborhood with a white cane. One of the things I did to help them understand what it's like to barely hear speech was to play a radio whose volume was turned up just enough to tell that someone was speaking, but not loud enough that you could understand what was being said. I also had them prepare a meal while blindfolded and expected them to use the stove or microwave so they could find out what it was like to keep track of cooking time by watching the clock or missing the microwave beeps altogether. (Long story short, they ended up burning their food.) To help them better understand what it's like for me to hear on the telephone, I called their cell phone via relay. (I asked them to set their cell phone on vibrate so they knew when my call came in.) They couldn't get through a single sentence without asking the CA to repeat. The last thing I did was to leave the house for awhile, come back and knock on the door. No matter how hard I pounded on the door, no one answered. (Thank goodness I had my key!) My parents and family told me they learned alot from the experience. Ever since that "experiment," they started treating me differently by being more aware of the challenges I face due to deafblindness. Even though some d/Deaf, HoH, blind, deafblind and physically disabled people may think these simulations don't give a true sense of what it means to have a particular disability (since the disability is only temporary and a blindfold or earplugs can always be removed), I think they serve as a starting point to at least give others an idea of what the experience is like.