Hey Mister Potts, wishing you'd start a thread and kick it off with a new framing, a new worldview on deafness and disability. Disability is a concept I struggle with: I certainly don't see my amazing, powerful little one as disabled in the slightest. I see an environment that's not equipped for what makes her different from most kids around her. But I do want all of the protections afforded to her by the ADA, I want 504 plans and IEPs and laws we can wield like hammers to smash bias. If we were to struggle with family income, I wouldn't want my child to lose opportunities. Are we talking ideal world where all is fair and equal? Or real world, where you have to find all you can to leverage against Big Money, the Status Quo, the Norm? What trade-offs are there? What's the upside vs. risks in tossing aside "disability" for a deaf child, a young deaf person, a deaf person 'of a certain age', a deaf family, a deaf senior?
I don't know if this is something embryonic in your head or something you are working on implementing right now. Is there a clear end goal and what are the steps towards getting there?
