Fluent in English and ASL?

[deafdyke]

Actually, I was referring to my experiences in person.

We've ALL dealt with extremists....but Banjo you gotta admit that the old hardliners are softening. I think in about five or ten years many of the people who were against it, will accept it. It's just like with hearing aids. Back in the old days there were lots of Deaf who thought that hearing aids would destroy Deaf culture....now aids are accepted.

The doctors I saw when I was around 11 or 12 were quite friendly and informative. They didn't try to pressure me into anything, they just answered the questions that I had for them. They weren't even disappointed that I said that I don't feel like I'm ready for it. In fact, they told me that I shouldn't go with it if I don't feel comfortable. But I can imagine some other doctors doing the opposite to their patients especially in countries that don't have universal healthcare.

Biased information? I know what you mean, both sides are pretty much guilty of this. :-/

I do see a lot of parents and doctors who are neutral or who are OK with their kids disabilties.....but a LOT of them still want "healthy normal" kids....

It is not always because of audism or whatnot..it is because parents want their kids to have ALL tools available for their kids. We are not here to judge them. Each parent is different.

The world is biased..there is not a speck of unbiaseness in this world. But we are not here to judge but follow our own hearts/minds/choices, etc.

True....not all oral first or orally educated kids are products of that mentality.
I can and do understand. Some parents want their kids first language to be English and others think that a TC education does not concentrate enough on speech therapy. But a lot of parents still are wicked uncomfortable with the trappings of disabilty, as so chose oralism b/c it seems SO NORMAL!!!!! That is a big reason why I am against oralism.....b/c its proponets push it as something that's healthy and normal, rather then as a useful skill. If more oralists promoted oral skills as a useful surivival skill, rather then as an audist thing , I and many others wouldn't even BE against oralism!

 

[deafdyke]

Oh and Banjo.....many of us who are trying to help the parents of today, are ex-orals. We were told that hearing and talking were the way to freedom, many of our parents were charter members of AG Bell....we spent our childhoods going "Boo-Be-Bah" and having our speech corrected constantly. Many of today's parents are going to look back in ten or fifteen years and think "I should have learned Sign....should have exposed my kids to Deaf culture"