Why do Deaf people feel ignored by many?

Beowulf said:
There's still the problem of having teachers qualified for it. A group of deafies want me to help them draft a letter requesting legislation requiring those who teach ASL in public schools be certified.
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Where I live they allow HS students to take it at the local community college, so fortunately they are being taught by qualified teachers. I agree that people who aren't qualified shouldn't teach ASL.
 
DeafCaroline said:
Why do you think that changing the system is the same thing as changing legislation like they did to deal with racism? In fact, tell me exactly what legislation to deal with racism you are talking about, other than affirmative action?
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As kokonut pointed out, I don't think legislation is a bad thing.

Affirmative action is different from declaring discrimination illegal. In fact, it's enforced discrimination. In in the case of discrimination being illegal, you cannot deny based on certain characteristics. In the case of Affirmative Action, you are saying you must deny based on certain characteristics.

Are you going to sue someone for not including you in a conversation?

I cannot find the documentation of when Saab was government funded(which I believe as a carry over from the war), but, as I understand it, Saab was once a government funded program which affected it's capitalistic economy. Today, the web is flooded with documents on it's latest bankruptcy so I can't find the economic case study. If I'm wrong I'll retract, but that's another whole thread in itself.

My point is, a government program is not going to solve the problem because it can't functionally do it unless it can give an incentive to do so. How do you want to reward people for including deaf in conversations? How do you create the benefit at the government level?
 
Hello...I just registered here because I'm trying to help someone who is now deaf...I'm 'hearie'. I don't have any experience w/deaf community...if I did it might be easier to come up with ideas on how to help the person I'm trying to help.
It's not an ASL problem...he's in jail...has been for 30 years. I have reason to think he's innocent-based on conversations with 2 other people trying to assist.
So I'm trying to learn more about the deaf / HOH community. From what I understand he doesn't sign either...he has a very dedicated friend (paralegal) who has been working with him the last 16 years...because she feels very strongly that he is innocent.
If you're interested-the article is here:

The Silent Treatment | Mother Jones

My name is Dana. I'd be interested if anyone has any thoughts...
Thanks
 
VacationGuy234 said:
As kokonut pointed out, I don't think legislation is a bad thing.

Affirmative action is different from declaring discrimination illegal. In fact, it's enforced discrimination. In in the case of discrimination being illegal, you cannot deny based on certain characteristics. In the case of Affirmative Action, you are saying you must deny based on certain characteristics.

Are you going to sue someone for not including you in a conversation?

I cannot find the documentation of when Saab was government funded(which I believe as a carry over from the war), but, as I understand it, Saab was once a government funded program which affected it's capitalistic economy. Today, the web is flooded with documents on it's latest bankruptcy so I can't find the economic case study. If I'm wrong I'll retract, but that's another whole thread in itself.

My point is, a government program is not going to solve the problem because it can't functionally do it unless it can give an incentive to do so. How do you want to reward people for including deaf in conversations? How do you create the benefit at the government level?
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I give up. I don't think you understand what I was saying. In no way did I ever suggest that a deaf person should sue for not being included in the conversation nor did I suggest the government should reward those for including the deaf.

I feel like you've missed my point completely. Which is that two things have to happen, which is the medical community realizing the value of the deaf community's input and experience when it comes to counselling parents of deaf babies and secondly, that the quality of education for the deaf needs to be improved, and standards elevated.

Yet you make this all sound like I'm asking for some socialist government legislation that's doomed to fail.
 
DeafCaroline said:
I feel like you've missed my point completely. Which is that two things have to happen, which is the medical community realizing the value of the deaf community's input and experience when it comes to counseling parents of deaf babies and secondly, that the quality of education for the deaf needs to be improved, and standards elevated.
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If I have not been able to articulate what I am saying well enough, I apologize.

Let us take a look at this again, specifically, what you have just wrote above and let me ask you to clarify some points.

When you say, "he medical community realizing the value of the deaf community's input" you are talking about augmenting what is already being told to deaf parents with the importance of learning to sign and inclusion into the deaf community, correct?

As I understand it, hearing people not being proficient in sign is the reason the deaf are left out of conversations. So, I would ask how this helps to include deaf in conversation?

When you say, "that the quality of education for the deaf needs to be improved, and standards elevated" (they already learn sign and deaf community). So, Are you saying the deaf need to learn signed English or lip reading in addition to what they already learn?

Again, if I understand correctly what you wanted the medical community to do (include the deaf community and sign) with the addition of these tools perhaps, the deaf community is against these things so is this not counter productive?

Is this what you are proposing? If it is not, can you please suggest what tools you recommend so I can better understand it.
 
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When I was introduce by eldest sister to one of her hearing friend. They were anxious to meet deaf because they never experience on how to communicate. They were afraid to fall in wrong hand. So, they end up by ignore me as I was brave enough to write the paper to them. They were relief and write back in awkward way.

Take it easy... you would ignore to different disable people too, they will rants on you. ;)
 
I feel the same way, OP. It does suck to be ignored and ppl pretend I don't exist lol it's funny
 
Booger_Bender said:
I probably appear to act like one because, I am the only Deaf in my entire family and not one member other than my fiancee who knows and understand ASL fluently or at all. I was raised forced in the hearing world with every aspect. While I do seem hearing I can honorably tell you I'm not. I'm just upset with the communication factor that hearies feel they rule over anyone else and completely ignore Deaf needs, instead they just tell us to join their culture instead if you want to be in regular society. It's like being a Dog chained up and never able to freely roam about happily.
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Then you need to become more proactive , when I was a watching town meeting TV about a huge dangerous storm we were getting I notice there was no
ASL interpreter on the stage I called up told them this is an ER town meeting and you have no ASL interpreter and the woman said "No my God you are right !"
There was one on stage within 20 minutes . I don't use ASL but I was upset there was no ASL interpreter there. You have to do more than get upset you have to get out there and made your voice heard.
 
Here's a thought I've been exploring.

Hearing people often (mistakenly) see Deaf people as people to help. In essence, they 'give' energy/time/resources/love/support/etc to help, and internally do not expect anything back.

Yet, when I reverse this by investing in my community, investing in hearing people, they start to give a lot more back. They start to see your value as a human being and begin to realize that they saw you wrong. And they really start to find ways to reach out to you.

In a nutshell: invest in them before they invest in you.
 
I agree we should let the public know that 'disable' people are only disable b/c of the way the pubic see us.
 
Muse said:
Here's a thought I've been exploring.

Hearing people often (mistakenly) see Deaf people as people to help. In essence, they 'give' energy/time/resources/love/support/etc to help, and internally do not expect anything back.

Yet, when I reverse this by investing in my community, investing in hearing people, they start to give a lot more back. They start to see your value as a human being and begin to realize that they saw you wrong. And they really start to find ways to reach out to you.

In a nutshell: invest in them before they invest in you.
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Very good point and observation, thanks for sharing this.
 
Rosa Parks style, um, now explain this? i have no idea whats "Rose Parks" or its a who ??
 
PowerON said:
When I was introduce by eldest sister to one of her hearing friend. They were anxious to meet deaf because they never experience on how to communicate. They were afraid to fall in wrong hand. So, they end up by ignore me as I was brave enough to write the paper to them. They were relief and write back in awkward way.

Take it easy... you would ignore to different disable people too, they will rants on you. ;)
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When I would eat out with my oldest sister she was repeat what I had ordered the waiter and this would pissed me off like HELL ! My sister thought people couldn't under one word I was saying and it was the other way around ! I had trouble understanding what people said at times.
 
whatislife said:
This is also why I can't find a girlfriend =\
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But your Deafness is actually an asset too. Think about all the people swooning over Nyle DiMarco. Sure, he's good looking, but his confidence in his Deafness makes him extra sexy. That works for anyone. You've got to be confident in your Deafness, though (and I have tons of ideas and exercises to help with that if you're ever curious)
 
Muse said:
But your Deafness is actually an asset too. Think about all the people swooning over Nyle DiMarco. Sure, he's good looking, but his confidence in his Deafness makes him extra sexy. That works for anyone. You've got to be confident in your Deafness, though (and I have tons of ideas and exercises to help with that if you're ever curious)
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Never heard of him. Care to elaborate? I try to be confident yes, and I try to explain myself to others.
 
whatislife said:
Never heard of him. Care to elaborate? I try to be confident yes, and I try to explain myself to others.
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I think you're awesome. I mean I read your posts and you're just chill and real. That goes a long way, man. At the very least I have mad props for you.

Let me see if I can elaborate better than I did last time. To me there's a difference between being confident and confident in your Deafness. One thing that stands out to me is when someone has something different about them, but they own it, they don't accommodate and explain it. When I just go up to random strangers and sign nonstop, not altering how I sign in any way, I make more friends than I do if I go up to random people and explain anything or ask them to accommodate me. I expect them to understand me, even if they don't know ASL. There's a confidence in that that people gravitate very quickly towards.

To extend that thought stream, I just sign and let them figure out how to communicate with me. That is actually a statement of confidence in their intelligence. I'm also saying, "Hey, I have faith in your smarts, we can find a halfway without either one of us bending over backwards."

It's a hard thing to hammer down into a few sentences. It's an essence. It's a feeling that says, "I'm [whatever's different] and I freaking rock for it."

Cause, dude. you do.

And Nyle DiMarco is the Deaf guy who won 1st place in America's Next Top Model and 1st place in Dancing With the Stars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyle_DiMarco
 
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