I'm Hard of Hearing personally but occasionally I run into this issue. I am freestyle dancer and once in awhile I get people that come up to me all shocked...WOW your an amazing dancer, followed by, I'm so sorry. I'm confused as to why they're sorry so I ask; their response, well you can't hear any of the music. I usually respond with a, who told you that!? I'm Hard of Hearing not Deaf. EVEN so I'm always slightly irritated that people assume that Deaf people don't listen to music or enjoy it, and don't dance either. That is so far from the truth. I know that SOME Deaf people don't care for music, but certainly not ALL. I few days ago I was talking to a Deaf person in my A.S.L.S group and I had mentioned that I'm a dancer, she told me she liked dancing and I responded, "oh yeah, what kind of music do you like to dance to ?" She responded with a slight shrug of the shoulders and said I'm Deaf.
I said I know that and laughed. "But I'm not going to just assume that you don't have a preference in music just because your Deaf, there are some Deaf people who love to make, listen and dance to music.
My slight beef is, don't automatically refer to your being Deaf as the reason you don't care much for music, it gives ignorant people of the hearing world the impression that ALL Deaf people don't know what it is to like music or be involved with music, however I will say its every persons responsibility to have enough common sense to know that not any particular group of people are all individually the same.
Overall music is not necessarily about what you hear, its about what you feel. Even in my ASL/Deaf culture department, sometimes without realizing it they are giving the impression that music is not an appreciated concept in Deaf Culture. I just say lets be a little more mindful of this topic.
I said I know that and laughed. "But I'm not going to just assume that you don't have a preference in music just because your Deaf, there are some Deaf people who love to make, listen and dance to music.
My slight beef is, don't automatically refer to your being Deaf as the reason you don't care much for music, it gives ignorant people of the hearing world the impression that ALL Deaf people don't know what it is to like music or be involved with music, however I will say its every persons responsibility to have enough common sense to know that not any particular group of people are all individually the same.
Overall music is not necessarily about what you hear, its about what you feel. Even in my ASL/Deaf culture department, sometimes without realizing it they are giving the impression that music is not an appreciated concept in Deaf Culture. I just say lets be a little more mindful of this topic.