Is being deaf a disability or not?

flyingace said:
I'm talking about the difference between "normal" and "disabled". "Normal" means using the telephone with the receiver to the ear and having a conversation with another person. "Normal" means having the stereo on a volume below "earth-shaking".
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This is not directed at u but at this view...

Who decides that talking on the phone is normal and that using VP is not normal? If hearing people decided that, why do we need to listen and agree with them? They arent the rulers of this planet.
 
shel90 said:
This is not directed at u but at this view...

Who decides that talking on the phone is normal and that using VP is not normal? If hearing people decided that, why do we need to listen and agree with them? They arent the rulers of this planet.
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I was waiting for you to get ahold of that one!:giggle:
 
Love the word "Normal".

So many people want to be normal, but none of them want to be average, ordinary, or mediocre.

Wake up call:

Normal means to be average and ordinary -- Therefore mediocre.
 
i have a refrigerator magnet that says, "normal is just a setting on a washing machine."
 
It definitely makes things more difficult in a world that is designed for hearing.
 
Bottesini said:
It definitely makes things more difficult in a world that is designed for hearing.
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i feel the same way when it comes to my blindness. everything in this world is so visually oriented that there is no way i can survive without sighted assistance (for example, going grocery shopping, completing money orders, using ATMs that aren't equipped with braille or speech, becoming acclimated to a new environment, etc.).

sometimes i feel like i have a double-whammy due to my deafblindness -- although my ci's have certainly helped make things easier in terms of communicating with others.
 
Bottesini said:
It definitely makes things more difficult in a world that is designed for hearing.
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Very good statement.

I've never considered myself as "normal" or "abnormal" but rather just a person that has some limitations. What those limitations are vary by every deaf person's perceptions. My limitations are in being able to use the phone, understand spoken speech without lipreading, and so forth. Yet for another deaf person, being able to use the Relay and/or VP makes them feel they do not have that limitation, and so forth. Being deaf feels more of a social and functional (e.g. in the workplace) issue rather than an actual physical disability, to me.
 
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Daredevel7 said:
More like a world designed for the majority. It's that simple.
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exactly. no offense, but deaf people aren't the only ones who need to learn how to deal with a world that doesn't always accommodate them. there are also many blind, physically disabled and mentally ill (especially the latter) who face discrimination too.
 
quite frankly, i don't want to be "normal." i'm perfectly happy as i am. i was born totally blind, but have *no* desire to see. as for my ci's, i chose to be implanted to increase my own personal safety as a totally deafblind person as well as the fact that some alternative communication methods were very slow and tedious.
 
Bottesini said:
It definitely makes things more difficult in a world that is designed for hearing

.
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Designed for left handed hearing people. (should be: Designed for RIGHT handed hearing people.)



Hopefully no school principal ever slapped someone because they deaf or blind -- But a lot of us left handed people were.
 
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Berry said:
Hopefully no school principal ever slapped someone because they deaf or blind -- But a lot of us left handed people were.
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i was left handed and slapped because of it while i was growing up in the 70s.

unfortunately, i remember it all too well.

as for slapping someone because they are deaf or blind, i don't know about that, but i do know in some schools for the blind, students are abused in a manner i'd rather not mention and suffer psychological consequences as a result.
 
jasin said:
If deafness is a disability then how come we can do everything a hearing persons can? Deaf can have sex, walk, read, write, ride bikes, fly planes, watch tv, listen to music, etc.
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A paraplegic can have sex, travel, read, write, ride a bike, fly a plane, watch tv, and listen to music. Are they not disabled?

Disability does not = inability to accomplish tasks. It merely means that some illness/impairment/difference means we have to change the way in which we accomplish those tasks:

A deaf person using sign instead of speech, a paraplegic using a wheelchair instead of walking. In the first case, both accomplish communication. In the second, both accomplish mobility.

And before you say "Oh, but some deaf people speak!" I will add "Oh, but some complete paraplegics walk!" (Yes, that is possible with specific, if extremely difficult and tiring to use, reciprocating braces)

So, yes, I think deafness is a disability.
 
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