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I haven't read all your replies... there's hundreds of them and I've not enough hours in the day to read thru them... but I thought I'd take the opportunity to reply
I'm 26 years old and I became HOH at 5 years old. This was progressive deafness until at 16 just before my GCSE (Uk end of school exams) my hearing completely went one evening while watching tv.
Right from an early age, my parents were told the 'old school' method of making sure I speak and don't sign. For me, I knew no different, where I lived, I was unaware that there was a 'deaf world' out there. I went through schooling just the same as everyone else, and no one looked upon me as different. I did have one teachin assistant who helped me once a week for homework and that was it.
At 16, because of the sudden loss of hearing, and confidence I might add, my parents decided it would be ideal for me to go to a residential college, and now I can totally understand why. Back then I was 'thrown in the deep end' and when I arrived at the college, and everyone was signing and I was sitting there like a moron.. people were asking if I was deaf because I was just talking to the staff without a bother, then I actually started getting the flak from deaf peers!
Whack me on the head if I'm wrong, but my perception of deaf/hearing worlds are no better than one another. If I speak in the hearing world I am classed as hearing, if I speak in the deaf world I am an outcast (to some people, not all) If I sign in the hearing world I am 'disabled and incapable of doing anything' and if I sign in the deaf world I am accepted.
Yet, after a few years of completely being involved in the deaf community , my speech drops, I lost contact with old friends and people decided that I was once again an outcast when I started dating my fiance (hearing) 4 years ago. I then discovered who my real friends were...
Life seems to dish out numerous obstacles, and they are never ending, they contradict one decision to another, a lifelong cycle.
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