why do hearing people think they better than us?

If I thought Deaf was offensive, I wouldn't have this screen name.
 
I think that hearing people picked up the term hearing impaired because of closed captioning. Our local news would always announced that the newscast was closed captioned for the hearing impaired. Hearing people heard that and assumed that it was the correct term. I have no idea why the news and media people thought it was appropriate.
 
society's_child said:
This is very odd to me. Years ago before I even had met a deaf person, I knew that "hearing impared" wasn't a good term to use. Even now, my dad will sometimes ask me about my "hearing impaired" friends and I have to correct him on that. For reasons i cannot understand, he thinks calling them "deaf" is offensive. *facepalm*
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The ironic part of this is my former boss' son has a chromosomal condition similar to Down's syndrome, and she hates when he's referred to as "mentally handicapped"/similar terms. Oooooof.
 
Also, someone (hearing girl) on another community I frequent posted this video: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbLz9-riRGM]D-PAN ASL Music Video "We're Going To Be Friends" by the White Stripes. - YouTube[/ame] with a caption under it that had "hearing-impaired" in it, and I left a comment correcting the OP, and an Australian girl (who is deaf) commented back to me that she prefers the term hearing-impaired. Do any of you know someone who actually prefers that term? My apologies if she reads this because I told her to check this website out heh, I mean no offense, I was just surprised.
 
My son is, pick one: retarded, mentally disabled, mentally impaired, developmentally delayed. I can't keep up - I just know he can't be fixed and I love him. I won't jump on anyone for using one of those terms - personally, it really doesn't matter to me.
 
mbrek said:
My son is, pick one: retarded, mentally disabled, mentally impaired, developmentally delayed. I can't keep up - I just know he can't be fixed and I love him. I won't jump on anyone for using one of those terms - personally, it really doesn't matter to me.
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To you maybe, but to a lot of people it really does matter. I really do take offense to the term "retarded" especially, as someone who has worked with people who are developed mentally disabled...plenty of people with those kinds of disabilities do understand the negative connotation of that word, and it hits them hard.
 
You can put any name on it. People will make fun of "mentally impaired" the same way as "retarded". (Although I will take offense at retard.)

If someone needs a "label", I use the one they'd prefer. The acceptable ones seem to change...
 
mbrek said:
You can put any name on it. People will make fun of "mentally impaired" the same way as "retarded". (Although I will take offense at retard.)

If someone needs a "label", I use the one they'd prefer. The acceptable ones seem to change...
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I know most families I've worked with prefer "person first" terminology...either a person with _________ specific condition or person who is developed mentally disabled. It just emphasizes that the person is not their condition, which seems more positive to me.
 
drphil said:
Does the fact of all latedeafened persons who were "part of hearing society" prior to becoming deaf negates the hypothesis of the Projection: re "better" than deaf?

Only on computer screens with not much reality to back it up.


Implanted A B Harmony activated Aug/07
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I think it depends more on the person than them being deaf or not deaf, I mean as far as I'm concerned everyone's equal, and I always have done even before I became deaf
 
melindajanet said:
I know most families I've worked with prefer "person first" terminology...either a person with _________ specific condition or person who is developed mentally disabled. It just emphasizes that the person is not their condition, which seems more positive to me.
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Yes. Use the ones they prefer. My main point (from an "oldster" - 45) is that the acceptable tag will change. When I was a child, it wasn't "African American", it was a negro or black person. That alone was an upgrade from the previous generation. It's different now.

Decades ago, my son would have been a "dummy", or something similar. Retarded (meaning slow) was an upgrade from that. Then retarded became a "bad" word, so now we have new ones. Stick around, the ones you are using now will most likely change again.

But the best part for me, my son doesn't give a hoot. His intellect is low enough so that his feelings are unable to be hurt. But he does know he's loved - and that's the most important by far.
 
What I not like is when words like retarded, gay become synonymous mean bad. "That movie retarded, it suck" or "that class so gay, waste my time". Is same like say "he try Jew me out $20". Same thing! Unacceptable. Society need be more part of solution, not accept usage like this. Retarded and gay have actual meanings, they not inherent derogatory. Angers me we allow derogatory usage eclipse actual meaning.
 
I agree Sunshine... There are plenty of words to choose from that convey the meaning intended.
 
Yes. It's when the words are used specifically to hurt or be derogatory that irritate me. And then of course you have those numbskulls who don't even think about what they say.
 
mbrek said:
Yes. It's when the words are used specifically to hurt or be derogatory that irritate me. And then of course you have those numbskulls who don't even think about what they say.
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Thinking first... naw that would be... too much like... work or something... :giggle:
 
serena1986 said:
why do they think they better than us?
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My sister is deaf and I'm not. However, I have never thought that I was better than her or better than anyone who is deaf, I never will. Quite frankly, I don't really feel that I'm better than people, in general. She was born deaf and I treated her like I would have anyone else (for better or for worse ;> ). We played nicely and then we fought other times and she is one of my best friends today.

Also, my sister has always been termed "hearing impaired". This is how she describes herself. We were told that that she has a "profound loss" in one ear and I believe a "moderate to severe loss" in the other. I haven't asked her recently if this is still the case. To be honest, until taking my first ASL class recently, I had no idea that this was not appropriate. I told her and she seemed surprised since it has never offended her. She knows only a bit of ASL, but wants to learn once her schedule is more accommodating.

I hope this helps and I hope that none of this post was offensive! That was not my intent. :)
 
Sometimes it is interesting to know how different languages compare. There might be cultural traits to how deaf and HOH people are treated. My native language Swedish translates "hearing-impaired" as "hearing-damaged". I do not know whether that sounds offensive or not. We often lack synonyms which is common in English, so this word cannot be compared to similar words in its own language.
 
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Hearing people think we have some sort of vicious 'condition' that hinders us. They don't see that deafness hinders us, it's hearing people that hinder us. I hope that was worth two cents.
 
Dixie said:
Hearing people think we have some sort of vicious 'condition' that hinders us. They don't see that deafness hinders us, it's hearing people that hinder us. I hope that was worth two cents.
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I believe that very strongly.
 
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