I hope as an old deaf adult it is ok for me to talk here.
I have popped in and out of deaf groups for my whole life and never saw the big deal like people make of it here. Maybe just because I never really know what goes on.
As a child 4 houses down from me was a boy profoundly deaf and not mainstream who was in the deaf program. All kids in our neighborhood signed some.
At 18 I started three years of group home living, and knew several deaf misfits who had come from the state school but did not adjust. They accepted my fine and I learned more sign.
As an older person now when I got so sick and even speechreading is more difficult, deaf friends of my husband at work told him go to sign classes to make my life easier because they see and think I struggle. They teach my husband more at work and he is very accepted.
Our lives are small for socialization, but I really never saw rejection in the way it seems a lot did here.
