New here and to the deaf community

RaynboFlutterby

RaynboFlutterby

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Oct 12, 2018
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I'm 47 in a couple weeks and I've been deaf/HOH my whole life. Never knew of a such community until recently. I never learned sign but I read lips fluently. I just didn't want to bring attention to myself as someone deaf or special. I'm currently wanting/trying to learn ASL to maybe be helpful to the deaf community someday.
 
Welcome!!!! Yes, Scary to realize that we have hoh people who are almost 50, and who also didn't get to attend a deaf school or a dhh program. Breaks my heart that it was thought you didn't " need" sign. You are within friends. Been there and done that!
 
I'm wondering, how can you be "deaf/HoH", that's sort of interesting. Sort of like when I'm wearing my Cochlear processors I'm only HoH, but when I take them off I'm Deaf again... if you don't have implants how do you pull off the Deaf/HoH thing? I mean one is being Deaf, and the other isn't, because Deaf is Deaf and everything else isn't, you know, Deaf, it's Hearing. Scalable understandably, but still not Deaf.

God I need to get a life or walk outside someday.
 
Everlucent said:
I'm wondering, how can you be "deaf/HoH", that's sort of interesting. Sort of like when I'm wearing my Cochlear processors I'm only HoH, but when I take them off I'm Deaf again... if you don't have implants how do you pull off the Deaf/HoH thing? I mean one is being Deaf, and the other isn't, because Deaf is Deaf and everything else isn't, you know, Deaf, it's Hearing. Scalable understandably, but still not Deaf.

God I need to get a life or walk outside someday.
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View hearing as a spectum. Hard of hearing is like a .5 in a spectrum on 1 and 0(0 being deaf and hard of hearing being 1). They can't understand the same way you do, but have more just because they can hear at all. I don't think this person meant this as in they are deaf/hoh, I think they meant it more as they don't know how hoh or deaf they are. Or don't understand the terms. Deaf and hard of hearing is a fine line at some point for some people because at some point in hearing loss a person can still hear but not understand anything verbal.
 
I say this just because I've met people here who consider themselves deaf are technically hard of hearing because they can still hear /something/. I personally would still consider them deaf. Would you consider someone who still hears ambient noise deaf just because they can hear something?
 
mypjpants said:
View hearing as a spectum. Hard of hearing is like a .5 in a spectrum on 1 and 0(0 being deaf and hard of hearing being 1). They can't understand the same way you do, but have more just because they can hear at all. I don't think this person meant this as in they are deaf/hoh, I think they meant it more as they don't know how hoh or deaf they are. Or don't understand the terms. Deaf and hard of hearing is a fine line at some point for some people because at some point in hearing loss a person can still hear but not understand anything verbal.
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Well put, thank you, that makes perfect sesne and I should have thought of it like that.
 
mypjpants said:
I say this just because I've met people here who consider themselves deaf are technically hard of hearing because they can still hear /something/. I personally would still consider them deaf. Would you consider someone who still hears ambient noise deaf just because they can hear something?
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That does depend greatly on where in the spectrum the loss is, sometimes with the thing about "read lips fluently", I've met people who say they are Deaf and just able to read lips perfectly, but they read lips so well because they are still hearing enough to put it together with lip reading. I simply become hostile when a hearing person is talking and EXPECTING to be understood "well cant you read lips", you know and I'm like, "are your words are written there or something"

In my own experience as a Deaf man, I do not just read lips, I stare at peoples chins to read everything, body language, facial expressions, emotional queues, the environment around us, and then try to draw conclusions. Without some sound to help you form the words Lip Reading is debatable. I've taken people who said they were Deaf and could read lips perfectly, sat them in front of a TV, turned on the news, hit mute and asked what they were saying, of course, they could never tell.
 
I have a profound loss at 115 dB loss. That is about as deaf as you can get. :) having said that, my super awesome ReSound hearing aids put me in the 40-50 dB range when I’m wearing them. So I hear a lot of sound, although I get no clarity from it. Telephone is still out for me. Can hear it ring (again, only with HAs) as well as voices on the other end, but understanding it? Forget it. I also lipread well as that comes from being deaf since birth and having eons of practice at it. So, at first glance, I may appear hard of hearing. Bottom line? I’m deaf.
 
AlleyCat said:
I have a profound loss at 115 dB loss. That is about as deaf as you can get. :) having said that, my super awesome ReSound hearing aids put me in the 40-50 dB range when I’m wearing them. So I hear a lot of sound, although I get no clarity from it. Telephone is still out for me. Can hear it ring (again, only with HAs) as well as voices on the other end, but understanding it? Forget it. I also lipread well as that comes from being deaf since birth and having eons of practice at it. So, at first glance, I may appear hard of hearing. Bottom line? I’m deaf.
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When you lose the rest, and are Deaf, revisit how awesome it was to be able to hear something or have it boosted, cause Deaf folks do not have that luxury without the second mortgage Cochlear Implants.

I do believe that the rating for hearing people who have loss to be considered as potentially Deaf is 125db+, I understand as a hearing person with significant loss that the lifestyle changes are so dramatic that you consider yourself a complete loss, but as I mentioned above, once you are Deaf you're likely to understand that the difference between 0 and something is HUGE.

Good luck!
 
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