Originally Posted by iowaboy
Someone tipped me off that you all were talking about me.
Look, I've never really knowingly met a Deaf person. I don't know what Audism is. I don't know if it's taboo to have said the following in a post:
"There aren't many resources in this area. Our hospital has an ASL interpreter on call, but has never used her. The Deaf community here seems pretty non-existent. The one thing we have going for us is that my aunt is an ASL interpreter. She lives over an hour away, but has been sending us good books and resources, and is going to try to stop in once every couple of weeks.
My first thought is to learn signs and use Signed Exact English, thinking that we will try to enhance her hearing by whatever method to the point where she will be able to have speech. Seems SEE would make communication easier in rural Iowa where she is unlikely to be around other deaf people on a regular basis. Those are just my initial thoughts though. I'm still mulling all of this over."
If that is offensive, someone should have clued me in- and I am truly sorry. However, our Audiologist instructed us to try to formulate our ultimate goal. They gave us an informal list of plausible goals- one of which involved the +/- acquisition of speech. We live in the middle of nowhere. I have to drive over an hour, 50 miles, to buy a pair of pants. My daughter isn't going to run into anyone fluent in ASL, SEE, or any other manual communication out here. No matter how fluent she is in sign, nobody is going to "get it" out here. For that reason, if she can make a sound that communicates a meaning, that's a pretty important goal for us. But it doesn't make her any better or worse than anyone else. If that reasoning is offensive, please find a constructive way to tell me, please.
I respect the Deaf community, ASL, SEE, and all of the above, but I'll never be a part of it. I get that. But I'm the one who is going to raise my daughter, and introduce her to both worlds. This is my starting point, and if I offend, or mess up, or totally botch anything, someone please pull me aside and set me straight. No more talking about life bans behind my back please.