How come they can use phone?

shel90 said:
Not sure if I understand the question.
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The reason I asked, I know few deaf people successfully climbed the corporate ladder as long as a deaf person are in aggressive role, and not feel inferior toward hearing people. You know, while back when I was a manager for CAD dept and we have one deaf guy who work longer than I do. He usually come to me complaining about how he saw other employee move up the ladder, going from drafter to project manager and he always felt tight in budget, he only get a small raise year after year. From my point of view that I can understand how he felt but from what I learned from other managers and VPs want him to stay in this position as cad drafter. He's the fastest cad operator, accuracy, and handled under duress very well. If he move up to another position, they will lose the greatest CAD operator. The only thing I noticed that he never confront his supervisor of his wish list. I can see that he felt inferior or afraid he will lose job if he become "complainer" or whatever. He was totally thinking opposite from what I heard from other managements who love him and outstanding performance. So, I decided to talk to supervisor/managers to give him a true experience of what to be like as a project manager. Remember that was back in TTY day. We found a small project that he can do and work with one CAD operator. After the project was complete, he realized how time consuming to talk on TTY and he couldn't get other project done. He spent lot of time on phone, contacting owner, contacting HVAC contractor, contacting Electrical, contacting builder and on and on. So, he decided to stay as CAD operator so he won't have to spend too much time on the phone. But he felt that if he should be making more money for being superb CAD operator. I told him again, If he's not happy what he's making, look for another job. If you do found a job, that make more than what he's making then talk to supervisor thinking about leaving the company. In back of my head I know that no one want him to leave. So, the result? His salary raised to 6%. He felt happy about it. He realized that speaking up with them is not as hard as what he thought. He no longer felt inferior. Then that day, I finally left the company working for 9 years. Today, he's a project manager with new VP technololgy.
So, some deaf people didn't realize how much it take to make a phone calls, and eventually don't want to deal with it. So, sometime it's not about "A deaf person is not worthy of climbing the corporate ladder if he/she is unable to use their ears for phone work", but there are some deaf people are aware of how much phone calls required and take up lot of time. So, he or she does not want to climb.
For me, I don't have problem with dealing a phone calls, and out on front of my office, I have a note says "LOOKING FOR ME? TEXT ME!!!" along with number below it. Lot of time I prefer phone call, so much easier and I want to get it done. And other time when they learned that I'm using relay, they prefer using e-mail. As for me, being management of information technology is a big job and huge amount of responsibilities and I constantly keeping my eyes open all the time to watch everyone expression because I can't hear rumor, so I have to confront them to see if there's anything wrong, or what is the problems or whatever. IF there's a rumor, sometime they don't tell me what's going on. THat what I hate!
 
I must be lucky few, no one got my number ever tried call me, all text only. I only get one or two voice mail from strangers wrong number per year.
 
My best friend still has a voice plan on his cell phone even though he can't hear the other person that he is talking to. Sometimes if he has a long story to tell me or it's really important, he doesn't feel like typing it out in a text message. What we do a lot is that he'll call me on both his cell phone and video phone. Then he can talk to me through the phone and I respond through the video phone. It's sometimes hard to do this because I'm still learning ASL and sometimes I can't understand certain words he says through the phone, but it's a fun, different way for us to communicate other than text message.
 
Banjo said:
It depends on your hearing loss, and keep in mind that even a lot of deaf people who may be able to talk on the phone, they often can only do it with a few people rather than everyone.
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Right. If I talk on the phone with people, it's with people I whose voices I am familiar with, like parents and some friends. But it is hard to hear them on the phone, too. The longer a telephone conversation goes on, the harder it is for me to understand them, because it goes outside the range of predictability.

How predictable the conversation is, helps me to understand them on the phone. For example, if my mother calls, it is probably for a couple things... to invite me to dinner on such-and-such day, that the weather is bad (tornado coming, etc), or someone died. The range of words within those topics are fairly predictable, so I can guess at a lot of the words she's saying. Once I have context, it's easier to figure the rest out.

But let's say she starts talking about her neighbor and the choice of paint they picked out for their basement office that their husband is going to use for his photography business. Whoa. Way outside range of predictability now and I have no clue what she's saying on the phone. I might happen to hear "paint" and "photography." But without context, these words are meaningless.

But my family and friends know by now that texting me or email is the best way. That's usually how they contact me. I haven't actually talked to my parents or friends on the phone for a long time now. I prefer not to talk on the phone if I can avoid it.
 
asongofhands said:
I'm hearing, and I also hate talking on the phone. I much prefer texting or VP.
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Curious why you would rather use VP if you are able to use a voice phone? I'm sure that if I was hearing and able to use voice phone, then I would prefer that over VP.
 
OH, another thing about phone. You know whenever I applied for credit card, bank account, loans or whatever, I always use land line phone number to fill out applications. I never give out my VP numbers on any applications, cuz I hate all the marketeers, sales calling and other sh*t. If some one asked me how come I never answer.. I told them I'm deaf, I don't use phone. <grin>
 
dereksbicycles said:
Curious why you would rather use VP if you are able to use a voice phone? I'm sure that if I was hearing and able to use voice phone, then I would prefer that over VP.
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I hate the cold, tinny sound of cell phone reception (I don't have a landline) and the lack of non-verbal communication. I would much rather see someone to communicate, although I usually just use the VP to talk to friends, not strangers or businesses. If I had to use it for everything, or with an interpreting service - then maybe I would feel more vulnerable?
 
I am new to the HOH world, and as such, have taken for granted my phone use. Now, it is becoming more difficult. I've let my children know that Testing and email works best for me. But now, I am so looking forward to getting a Bluetooth link to my HA's so that i can resume my phone talking with more ease. My experience has opened up a new world to me ... to understanding what it must be like NOT to have that freedom to just talk and hear whenever I wanted to. As my loss became more severe, I greived and was becoming withdrawn. Now, through the inspiration of many new HOH & Deaf friends, I am inspired by them ... and am determined that this challenge will not limit my interactions with others. I will overcome it ... one way or another and adapt.
 
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