As others have mentioned - I completely understand that for what I call "formerly hearing" people
becoming Hoh or deaf is often a hardship, disadvantage, limitation etc - and can be a scary and sometimes emotionally devastating situation which they want to "fix" as soon, and completely as possible with the end goal of being as close to hearing as possible. By "formerly hearing" I mean people who had normal or very near normal hearing for most of their life and completely identify as hearing (in the same way someone who lives in Mexico, Spain, Germany, Switzerland identifies with being Mexican, Spanish, German, Swiss etc) it is WHO you are right down to your "core" identity including language, culture, social views/values etc.
However for the majority of us who were BORN Hoh or deaf (or became so in the first year of life) especially for those like myself who were born with significant hearing loss (either unilaterally or bilaterally) we generally see being Hoh/deaf as not a "limit" but an natural and acceptable aspect of who we are.
I honestly feel that being Hoh/Deaf is as equally "limiting" in my life as:
- Being only 5'3" tall (which makes getting things off tall shelves in stores etc difficult)
or
- Having very light/fair skin & blue eyes (which means I burn VERY easily & am visually very light sensitive as well)
or
- Being a female (when I work in a VERY male dominated field. In fact for the first 7 or so years ie up until 2002/03, I was the FIRST and ONLY female in my entire province who was trained, licensed and practising professionally in my field. Like most women in male dominated fields I make MUCH less than my male co-workers EVEN though I have MORE training, more experience, more "specializations" and had clients requesting my work from as far away as the Yukon/North West Territories,Nunavut & Alberta)
Do these things occasionally "limit" me? Frustrate me at times? I suppose - but not in a manner that lessens my life in any realistic sense. I certainly wouldn't want to change WHO I AM working on the belief that somehow I'd be a "happier person" or a "better person" if I had Olive skin, was 5'6", was a male and had perfect hearing - because if I did that, I'd also not be ME.
I've worked hard to prove that I CAN do anything I want - it might need to be slightly modified but I CAN do it. From the time I was little people told me I'd never be able to play an instrument - so at 6 I started playing recorder, 8 I started playing violin (played for 4years and did a number of concerts) and then in jr high I started playing Flute & Alto sax and then Piccolo and Trumpet as well. I ended up (through a LOT of hard work) becoming very advanced and played with a number of professional youth orchestras and bands while still in High school (15-17), teaching individual lessons, teaching clinics, and achieved a goal that I'd set for myself as a young child - to play with a "real orchestra" by the time I was 21... I played flute & piccolo in a concert with our professional provincial symphony orchestra, performing Saint-Saëns "Organ Symphony" (Symphony #3) at 17years of age while still in high school.
The fact that I don't hear the music in the same way as hearing people does NOT lessen the enjoyment or beauty of it - I simply experience it slightly differently (I'd say even more profoundly in many ways).
While hearing people (and "formerly hearing people") see Hoh/deafness as a "lack" of a sense - I see it more as a sense that is in many ways transferred to my other senses - I hear with my eyes, my touch and "instincts" in ways that hearing people can't even begin to understand. I can sense the subtlest of vibrations indicating someone is driving by on the road outside, or walking in the hall, or my phone is ringing/buzzing ...
I don't "miss" sound - because it's literally all around me - I can FEEL it, I can SEE it - and it is beautiful and awe-inspiring just as it is to aurally hear it (I was born SSD, so I DO know what things sounded like before, versus now when I have more & severely fluxing HL as well as APD etc)
While hearing people look at me (and others who are Hoh/Deaf) and think of all the things that they
believe we are "missing out on" - In reality, with hard work and determination I'm not missing out at all. Through many years working hours a day on reading and literacy skills, I learned to love the written word - and through that the entire world was opened up to me. Through practice I learned to interpret the subtle vibrations through which music is able to come alive.
This may seem a bit off topic - but it's important for newly-deaf people to understand this... so I'm writing it here
To me (and many professionals) - the most important factor isn't hearing/lack of hearing at all - it's literacy (something that many Hoh/d/Deaf really struggle with due largely to the techniques often used to teach Hoh/Deaf children).
Through understanding of written words the entire world becomes available not only to allow basic communication, but to explore a vast world of literature, culture, language, art, education and understanding. If a Hoh/d/Deaf person is able to have a deep understanding of written language(s) the barriers simply disappear (in a way that is much more profound than HAs or CIs alone are able to do).
If there is one thing that I wish every single person who is Hoh/d/Deaf and every parent of an infant/child who is Hoh/d/Deaf could understand the importance of - it's the necessity of solid written language
comprehension and that no matter how much time, dedication, tears it takes - that investing in learning to read, write and understand the language which surrounds them (in Canada, USA, UK etc this is English for the most part). Even more important is that for Hoh/d/Deaf infant pre-literacy skills need to be started the day they are born - the infant
needs (and deserves) to be surrounded by words constantly and have family members who are educated in pre-literacy teaching techniques so that the infant will grow into a child who not only understands the written word - but
loves it.
There was a specific reason that I used "deaf" and "Deaf" in the way I did. The meaning was clear to those who are informed regarding the topic.
