Tom I agree with you 1000%, I mean I'am 38 and the HOH people just don't know about societies and associations and groups with other HOH people and the hearing dealers and hospitals just really aren't interested in telling people.
So 90/95% of all HOH people grow up without knowing anybody else who's HOH or Deaf - and to make mattersworse is that they never experience when they're younger and have the chance to be a part of the Deaf Culture to see beyond their isolation and difference.
I could tell you the horror story's of what some agencies do and the complete crap I take from my parents at the age of 38. They treat me like I'am dumb and when I try to give my say it's bat out of hell or high water! If I died, they'd finally smile and breathe, they don't know how to deal or talk to me and they won't listen to a bleeping thing I have to say! They don't even see me as their daughter, and they're ashamed of me - and that's exactly how they talk to me every single day. If I was having a heart attack, they'd laugh and just walk out the door, seriously! And I'am just a normal person who isn't working at the moment, but because of that they talk to me like a Fuck** doorknob! I was volunterring as a Research Analyst for a Magazine, even at a University and it didn't mean squat's ass to anyone in my family, I've been told many many times I'am never going to be successful, and quite frankly they didn't let me go back to post-secondary years ago when my hearing was better because they just don't believe I can do anything. I only have a 65% loss and I talk normally!