First i would like to preface this with....Some people are just assholes, it doesn't have anything to with the fact that they can hear. anywho
Some of the rudest things said to me was during the time I was actually losing my hearing, but before I got my aids. See I lost my hearing my left ear at age 20, but I managed fine until I started losing it my right ear around age 25/26. So one my biggest problems was the actually the fact that my speech is normal (although I've recently discovered that I'm getting classic deaf speech. My audiologist asked my sister how long I've been losing my hearing because I've started holding my consonants longer than my vowels) At the time my hearing went in my right ear I was a cashier at Mobil. When I couldn't understand someone I would tell them I was hard of hearing, could they please speak up. Then they'd say it exactly the same, so I'd ask again, sometimes this would happen several times, until finally they would say "are you serious?" OMG yes!! No, I just like making you repeat yourself over and over, good times. But they didn't believe me because I spoke normal. I can't tell you how many times my coworkers would get angry at the customers, and yell at them "she's deaf!!" I don't think I've ever wanted to punch anyone so badly as this one guy that asked me a question when I wasn't looking at him. So I asked him "what/". He goes "a baaaaag" said it all slow like I was stupid or something, I looked at the guy and said "Dude, I understand the English language, I just can't hear it!"
Another time, also while I was waiting for my hearing aids ( I went thru the Voc Rehab and it took like 8 months cuz they wanted me to get mris ctscans, see a specialist in Boston etc meanwhile I was losing more and more hearing) I went to the DMV to renew my license. Everytime the guy said something to me I'd repeat it back to him to make sure I was understanding correctly, he says at one point "are you deaf" (in a nasty tome of voice) I said "yes!", oh the look on his face. hahahaha it was priceless. And this other customer, nasty lady, if I asked her "what" (she was a regular and so this happened often) she'd say "has the bleach gotten into your brain?" You can see in my pic I'm blonde. Nice, so now I'm stupid because I'm deaf AND blonde. I always wanted to ask the lady "you do realize that blonde is a naturally occurring hair color correct? With your big brunette brain you do realize that if I was bleaching my hair to be a blonde that would mean that I was really a brunette right? SO are you saying that you think brunettes are stupid?
BUT now I have aids so people have a visual clue that I'm deaf/hoh, so I don't run into assholes too often anymore, well I do, everybody does
but they aren't so blatant in their assholery anymore.
One thing I think is funny people do. I'm a massage therapist now, and after I've talked to the client about they need/want I warn them that I'm deaf *points at hearing aid* and that when they're face down on the table I won't be able to understand them, so if they want to talk to me talk to my face not my feet. I can't tell you how often when I tell someone this they go OH, and take a step closer and focus on my face more intently....like they're going to read my lips or something. That always cracks me up. I'm thinking...what are you doing? I'M the one that can't hear, you're fine lol. BTW people are very cool about getting a massage from a deaf person, I have never had a client act like this was going to be a problem, this is actually kind of a bonus for them because it's more relaxing. I'm not going to chit chat with them, most people like a quiet therapist so it works out well for everybody.