amazingblu
Member
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2015
- Messages
- 31
- Reaction score
- 1
Hi,
I have been poking around this forum for a little while now, I comment here and there but mostly reading posts. My name is Adam some people call me AJ. The most important person in my life calls me Daddy or would if he could talk yet lol. In any event I and extremely HoH or i suppose deaf. When I was growing up there were no options to learn ASL. The only one in my family with hearing loss. I am 1 of 2 sons from a single mother who worked 2 jobs to keep us in a school district we couldn't afford. We would sometimes go weeks without electricity or we lived on pancake mix from a whole sale warehouse ( like a 20 lb bag) for a month. The school provided us lunch and most our clothing came from thrift or good will. Hearing aids were not even a remote possibility. My mother never went on welfare or got food stamps though I'm sure she would of qualified. Now I have a son. He is the world to me. It is time that I learn ASL. I am going back to school and just wrapping up my first semester of college ( Another luxury we were not afforded when I was young ). I work , go to school full time and I am a full time single father. There are ASL classes offered at my college but I would like to learn as much as possible before I take them. Currently I am registered with Disability Services and I have a captionist. I am very good at reading lips and have made it well into my 30's with this alone but now I want to be able to communicate with my son. I am told I speak well for the extent of my hearing loss. I wouldn't really know since I have not heard my voice. I am really looking for any resources or maybe if someone is wants to Skype and help me learn. There is a large community of Deaf in Columbus Ohio but I am quite a ways north of Columbus so I have not gotten to meet anyone yet. Well any thoughts or advise would be greatly appreciated.
Just a side note : Before my son came along I was to scared to reach out to the Deaf community because I have always been told and read for myself that they are not very accepting of those who are HoH / deaf. So I have always been an outsider. Not fitting in the hearing world and avoiding the Deaf community for fear of rejection.
I have been poking around this forum for a little while now, I comment here and there but mostly reading posts. My name is Adam some people call me AJ. The most important person in my life calls me Daddy or would if he could talk yet lol. In any event I and extremely HoH or i suppose deaf. When I was growing up there were no options to learn ASL. The only one in my family with hearing loss. I am 1 of 2 sons from a single mother who worked 2 jobs to keep us in a school district we couldn't afford. We would sometimes go weeks without electricity or we lived on pancake mix from a whole sale warehouse ( like a 20 lb bag) for a month. The school provided us lunch and most our clothing came from thrift or good will. Hearing aids were not even a remote possibility. My mother never went on welfare or got food stamps though I'm sure she would of qualified. Now I have a son. He is the world to me. It is time that I learn ASL. I am going back to school and just wrapping up my first semester of college ( Another luxury we were not afforded when I was young ). I work , go to school full time and I am a full time single father. There are ASL classes offered at my college but I would like to learn as much as possible before I take them. Currently I am registered with Disability Services and I have a captionist. I am very good at reading lips and have made it well into my 30's with this alone but now I want to be able to communicate with my son. I am told I speak well for the extent of my hearing loss. I wouldn't really know since I have not heard my voice. I am really looking for any resources or maybe if someone is wants to Skype and help me learn. There is a large community of Deaf in Columbus Ohio but I am quite a ways north of Columbus so I have not gotten to meet anyone yet. Well any thoughts or advise would be greatly appreciated.
Just a side note : Before my son came along I was to scared to reach out to the Deaf community because I have always been told and read for myself that they are not very accepting of those who are HoH / deaf. So I have always been an outsider. Not fitting in the hearing world and avoiding the Deaf community for fear of rejection.
