Quote:
Originally Posted by shel90
It wasn't ok because I was forced to take the oral only route as a child. If I had been given exposure to both, I wouldn't have all these problems growing up.
were these oral only deaf exposed to both? How do they know if they won't or will like ASL or the deaf community if they have never experienced it?
20 years ago I said the exact same thing..that I was thankful to be oral only and be mainstreamed. That was when I was very ignorant about the Deaf community and ASL.
Give me an oral person who was exposed to both growing up who has decided to abandon ASL and go the hearing world only and then I will take their opinions at face value.
Same for an ASL onlty deaf person who has never experienced being mainstreamed to say that they hate the hearing world if they have never experienced it.
I think both kinds of people are pretty rare.
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I know several teens and adults who are oral and choose to be oral, inspite of the fact that they grew up in a Deaf family. I also know deaf people who know ASL (and even use it sometimes) but advocate and support oralism for deaf children.