Which Deaf Consider Themselves Disabled?
Thursday September 4, 2008
Are deaf people with limited English more likely to think of themselves as disabled, compared to deaf people with "good" English? Below is an example of an e-mail received from a deaf person with limited English who considers himself/herself disabled:
My question is why people not think deaf is disable, as my self is disable deaf but have extremely hard time in hearing world especially taking courses at school where I have to repeat classes to pass cause of skill of english. Do you all think discrimination still today in America I find it damaging companies discriminate deaf but learned to get away with it. What is your opinion on this matter??
Comments
Yes I believe we all are deaf disabled because many hearing people still are audism to deaf s need.like interpretor … not enough access employements/ hosptials / dentists or specialists .. I dont need to go / holler at ADA or hassle running around seeing ADA or lawyers .. i am getting burning out myself …Hearing always finds excuses for deaf people … that s not nice .. ok that s how i felt … ok I repeat i support that deaf are disabled why ? hearing still put deaf people down ..
You assumed that person thought that way because he/she has “not good enough English?”
She felt deaf people are “disabled”, as do I.
We do fall in that category, technically. We may not feel disabled, but, we are.
Please do not assume things about people based on their English level.
Unfortunately, although it is not right, people make assumptions about the deaf people they meet who have poor English writing skills. It is a fact of life, everyone is taught that how you present yourself in writing is often how people perceive you, rightly or wrongly.
That is one of the main reasons I make every attempt to present myself well when writing, it tends to help people take me more seriously. I wish it were not so, but it is. What we can do, is lead by example and ensure that people understand that for many deaf, the written English is almost a second language.
Can you use the regular telephone without a TTY? Can you order on the speaker at the drive through restuarant without reading lips? Can you function at school and at work without an interpreter? Can you live without deaf culture? Why do you apply for SSI disability? Yes all deaf and Deaf people are disabled because ears are not functioning properly to hear communication. Some likes to be deaf and some don’t. But they’re NOT handicapped! They can do anything except hear!
People who move here from another country such as mexicans are not very fluent in english. That does not mean they’re disabled.
How true about many “grassroot” deaf people are more likely to identify themselves as “disabled” to the deaf intellectuals!
Eddie Rayon is absolutely right how we self-perceive and define ourselves to the society at large.
Some deaf people strongly felt that the ADA law were kinda responsible for companies and governments to be less enthausitic to hire deaf people due to the burdensome costs of accomodations and accessbilities.
That is John McCain’s creation - the ADA law which he was the real one to make it possibly happened in the first place.
RLM
DeafToo, I thought about your questions in regards to a particular person I know… She cannot use a telephone to make calls in the US. She cannot order on the speaker at the drive through with or without reading lips. She cannot function at school and/or work without an interpreter. Yet, she is not disabled or deaf. She just moved here from Mexico. I don’t think these are valid questions to determine whether someone is disabled or not.
RLM,
Your comment “Some deaf people strongly felt that the ADA law were kinda responsible for companies and governments to be less enthausitic to hire deaf people due to the burdensome costs of accomodations and accessbilities.” is none other than one of your trademarked turd sandwiches you been handing out of your blog.
The ADA itself became the giant force, the push, we had that connected companies to policies and technology developed that makes companies able to accommodate deaf people.
A lot of the new technology we have like the video phones, mobile communicators, and face to face devices wouldn’t have been developed if it wasnt for ADA.
I think of Deaf people not so much as “Disabled” as “Disenabled.”
The only reason Deaf people have a disavantage is because the overwhelming majority of people are Hearing and can easily use Spoken Language. It’s because everyone ELSE can use spoken language, THAT’S what puts Deaf people t a disadvantage.
If humans didn’t communicate via spoken language, not being able to HEAR would be just as a disadvantage as those who couldn’t SMELL. If we all communicate via SIGN, there would be virtually NO DISADVANTAGE to not being able to Hear AT ALL!!!
I believe that deaf are not disabled as I feel inside are not disabled. I agree with my sister
has been said, “Deaf people ARE NOT DISABLED!”
I love when she said that–that make me happy.
Anyways, I am not good with English, I have
hard time with English grammar, but English
spellings are excellent, however I use
Google search for misspelling to fix it for
e-mail, comment on youtube, and etc that I want them to be understand.
Hearing is not just for the English. When your house could burn down, or didn’t hear the horn on the road, or didn’t hear the knock on the wall from your neighbor about a robber in the complex, I believe those are life threatening situations. If your inabilities may cause you to die, I believe this is a huge disability. My English is pretty well, since I lost my hearing in grade school, but my vocabulary beyond grade school is difficult.
There are deaf and HH people all over the world, and not having proper English has anything to do with being disabled. Whether someone wants to believe it or not, is a matter of denial, but not on technical terms. For instance, some drug addicts refuse to believe they are drug addicts, simply because they are in denial. Those who believe deaf culture is not a disability are in denial. They may be able to do things and do so comfortably, but they are still in denial. Hearing is a major sense we have, even more important and disabling than the sense of smell. Eyes and Ears are the two most needed senses, so we are at a huge disadvantage with a large number of inabilities.
Mmm… I’m hard of hearing and do not consider myself Deaf, but deaf. My friend is also hard of hearing, she hears well on the phone but still struggles when people speak very low. She doesn’t need to read lips as much as I do. We both aren’t part of the Deaf Community, but as we DO need help and accommodations, we are PERSONS with disabilities.
Because us both speak and write very well in Spanish (the language spoken over here, we aren’t in the USA) people, even cops, do not believe us when we tell them that we are deaf. But I have met a lot of people that isn’t deaf and can’t write as well as we do. I guess we pushed ourselves to learn as most people write based on hearing, and we do based on grammar.
Ms. Berke,
I certainly can see your point and somewhat valid. Myself being deaf since birth and took me 8 times to take the english proficiency test in high school just to pass.
Additionally, I don’t ever find or identify myself as a Disabled person. Especially not like the “Disabled vehicles parked on the side of the highway”.
However, I do have A disability. As I.King Jordan so nicely says: “I can do anything; but hear.”.
I always appreciate having the accomodations provided by various laws to allow me to participate as a contributing citizen of America.
I will keep voting and “voicing” my opinions and needs to preserve our rights so we can one day become exact equals with any other person in America.
Thank you for your blog.
For those of you saying “not have a disability” but still want your interpreters, captioning and SSIs. …..Gotta tell you it will be a bit difficult to preserve that as you may not “identify, yourselves as such”.
is deafness a disability. techinically, it IS! disability means “lack of” we are lacking our hearing. now there will be deaf people who believe its not a disability. or is ashamed to call themselves disabled. but the truth is.. we ARE disabled. But entirely up to us, on how we allow our deafness to affect us. I accept my deafness, and chose to work around it. yes, we constantly struggle with the hearing world on our needs not being met. But what can we do? we can TEACH the hearing people.. SHOW them instead of sitting around and whining, or complaining about how we’re being treated. (wink)
If you have faith in yourself and are determined to move ahead in life, there is no disability in this world that can stop you from being an achiever. A strong will, patience and perseverance are the keys to moving ahead in life. “If you really want something in life, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it”. Serving as a proof of this, are those people who have struggled against all physical difficulties and inabilities to move much ahead of the able-bodied ones. In case you are still not convinced, just check out of the list of famous deaf people given here. All of them suffer(ed) from hearing loss, but still managed to make a mark in this world. We are able bodied.
I can understand some deaf who do not have any skills in English. There are resources that can help you to be succeed. Again, Do not feel that you are disabled. Let us look at the historic deaf people who accomplished.
List of Famous and Historic Deaf People
Ferdinand Berthier - First deaf person to receive the French Legion of Honor, Founder of world’s first deaf organization
John Brewster Jr. - Itinerant artist of the Federalist Period in America
Laurent Clerc - Co-founder of first school for the deaf in America, First deaf teacher of the deaf in America
Pierre Desloges - Writer and bookbinder, First known deaf person to publish a book
William Elsworth “Dummy” Hoy - American baseball player
Helen Keller - American deaf-blind writer, lecturer and activist
Juliette Gordon Low - Founder of the Girl Scouts of America
Granville Redmond - American Painter
Douglas Tilden - American Sculptor
Phyllis Frelich - Winner of ‘Tony Award’
Marlee Matlin - First deaf woman to win an Academy Award
Heather Whitestone McCallum - First deaf woman to become Miss America
Guillaume Amontons - French inventor and physicist
Cliff Bastin - British footballer
Luis Buñuel - Spanish surrealist filmmaker and poet
Gertrude Ederle - First woman to swim the English Channel.
Thomas Edison - American inventor
Walter Geikie - Scottish painter.
Francisco Goya - Spanish painter
Oliver Heaviside - British engineer, mathematician and physicist
Georgia Horsley - Miss England 2007
Harold MacGrath - American author
Sir William McMahon - Australian politician and former Prime Minister
Pierre de Ronsard - French poet
Miha Zupan - Slovenian basketball player
Ludwig Van Beethoven - German composer
Rudi Carrell - Dutch singer
Gabriel Fauré - French composer
Johnnie Ray - American singer
Bedøich Smetana - Czech composer
Pete Townshend - British lead guitarist and songwriter with ‘The Who’
Ayumi Hamasaki - Japanese singer and songwriter
Ryan Adams - American country artist
Foxy Brown - American rap artist
Excerpted from the goggle. I thought it may help you all.
Maybe Jaime Berke (writer) would feel disabled if she were in Africa and the people speak Swahili, Arabic or Yoruba. Jamie would have no idea what they are saying then I think I should consider her “disabled.”
I understand a person in limited speaking/writing in English than communicating with a illegal immigrant.
Jamie is a turd. If she’s gonna targeted a deaf person then why don’t she targeted blind and mental retared people? Obviously to me she doesn’t know to “appericate” things at certain level which is better than no communication at all.
She’s a pathetic human being ever lived thinking the world should be perfect spoken english language.
I dont consider myself disabled because of deafness. I was deaf for 18 years now, with excellent speech. HOwever, “the only handicap the deaf person have is the hearing person” (Helen Keller. We should all just live by a “can do” attitude.