Just Me

  Shortly after I became deaf, my parents knew we would have to figure out how this new communication barrier we were now faced with was going to change the way we communicated. I would no longer be able to hear anyone calling for me from another room and I could not communicate with them when they talked to me while having their face turned away. We knew perfectly well that, from that point forward, my deafness was going to change how everyone in the family communicated with me. (I was the only deaf person in the family.)   One thing they did was write things down. Nobody learned sign language right away; it was as though using sign language to communicate with me was a last resort. Because of this “no sign language” rule in our home, I didn’t learn sign language either. Communication was either via written notes or lipreading.   But mostly lipreading.   My parents really wanted me to use lipreading as a form of communication. “We live in a hearing wor...

  September is Deaf Awareness Month. As someone who has been deaf for 35 years, this month is a very important month to me. It definitely has a special place in my heart. When I wrote articles for the Deaf/HOH community for SIGNews, I felt a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing that I was contributing something positive to the Deaf/HOH community. I continue to do this in my writing, as well as efforts to advocate for members of the Deaf/HOH community.   Another way to positively contribute to the Deaf/HOH community is to write about misconceptions circulating among the hearing world about people who are deaf. However, before I get started writing about them, I feel I must first share my experience of becoming deaf.   Interestingly, my personal experience of losing my hearing ties into one the many misconceptions out there about people who are deaf.   These misconceptions are that:   “Someone who is deaf was probably born deaf” ...