rockdrummer

Agreed. We can spcualate all day. I would defer to the original poster to answer. My feeling is that anyone has the right to not speak but the question is why would someone want to do that especially if you are "fully capable" of speaking and if you are in a room of non-signers.

Deafness

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shel90

True...

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Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

jillio

Well, I think the OP's logic, if you will go back and check his posts, is that by speaking, he is being accused of not being deaf, or of faking his deafness, and being denied accommodation as a result.

rockdrummer

If that is true then it sounds like an issue to be taken up with NAD/ADA. It would be a terrible injustice for someone to be treated this way. I also belive if a person is treated like this and chooses to do nothing about it then they are contributing to the problem.

jillio

Yeah, that's why we all referred him to legal means to remedy the situation. He made a couple of other threads that went into detail about the situation.

And I agree completely. If one chooses not to defend their rights, they give implicit permission for the violations to continue.

Lighthouse77

sometimes that is a problem. I often have to refer myself as deaf instead of hard of hearing because people tend to treat me as a hearing person. Like expecting me to call them or face away from me.

another reason is that some people laugh at the way you sound. For me, they ask me where I come from because my accent is weird.

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LDNanna

Shel, people have said I am starting to get a deaf accent. (I did not invent that phrase it's just what was said about me) I am late-deaf. Still, it sounds pretty flat I guess. I often just pass a note at the store or maybe at a takeout stand. My boss says it's baby talk. when I have an ear infection and can't hear my own voice at all it really is hard to pronounce some things or get the tone right. Shame on me, too. Because when she said that to me, like making fun, I dropped the "F" bomb. I really did, and two times. (blush)
Orally and ASL, oh gee. I got a pretty good laugh though.

defgrl

I grew up in a Hearing family. I knew only English. I started learning Sign when I was 20 years old. I am almost 40 years old. I have been signing for half my life. PSE/ASL has become my PRIMARY LANGUAGE/mode of communication.

I have a documented disability that has been dx'ed TWICE. I have received accomodations for said disability in a college setting. I have a record of said disability. I am regarded as having said disability. Whether I have (C)APD or some other hearing loss/impairment/disorder (such as AN/AD) cannot be determined without further testing. I am SICK OF testing. It is a waste of time. Some people benefit from hearing aids/FM system with CAPD. Some don't. Some people benefit from hearing aids/FM system with AN/AD. Some don't. I happen to benefit to a degree from hearing aids, an FM system, a Sign Language interpreter, lipreading, etc. There is no one accomodation or solution.

BUT, as far as language(s) and culture go; I MUCH prefer the Deaf world. I do not view myself as "a broken Hearing person." I am just me. Sometimes I label myself "hearing impaired" (mostly with Hearing people). Sometimes I label myself "Hard-Of-Hearing" (mostly with Deaf people). I am neither fully Hearing nor fully Deaf. I am "hearing impaired" AND Hard-Of-Hearing.

I don't think people who are outside the Community have a right to force me to use expressive/receptive spoken English. Or to use it at all. And if autistic people are better at using ASL/PSE, then I think they should be encouraged and accomodated. I am an Aspie myself, and there are times when my English just SHUTS DOWN.

What I do want is CLEAR COMMUNICATION.

Claire Menzies

Dear MikeJ

Surely its common sense. Once you have asked for a Sign Language Interpreter, they have to provide you with one, it's your legal right.

Over here in the UK if we request for Sign Language Interpreter they have to provide us with one as BSL is a recognized language.

Please keep in touch I am very interested to find what happens...

ASLGAL

That is one of the problems in may areas of the US Claire, in my and many others opinions, that ASL is recognized but is not recognized as a language.
The contradictions in recognition and accomodation are the big problem.

My husband fit into defgrl's description. He is neither fully hearing or fully deaf and get the same mistreatment.
For example, he had an appointment yesterday. They finally listened to his description of what his hearing aids have been doing and they realized -finally - that there is a problem with them. They kept them for repairs so now he is without any assistive device and therefore deaf.

So, for how ever long it takes to fix the devices he will be signing more and talking less. The reactions of hearing and deaf will vary.

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Claire Menzies

Hi ASLGAL

Thank you for reply.
It make me angry that hearing people decide how deaf people should communicate.
Yes I wear hearing aids only they help with balance when sitting in my wheelchair, I can hear with them abit, but I do prefer to sign.

I find hearing people look at me allot when they see me sign, they are shock.

pek1

That's precisely what I want. My girlfriend writes to me as if she's signing and I have rejected her notes due to I have better things to do than have a headache trying to read what she's saying. To compromise, I asked her to get a free subscription online to her hometown's newspaper so she can see and read how she should be writing.

However, back to the point at hand: If a person wants an interpreter because he or she is going "voice off" that day just for the matter of principle, he or she should start looking for a job and get off disability because they are doing this just to catch the court system of "violating" his rights to an interpreter.

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Claire Menzies

Hi Pete

"If a person wants an interpreter because he or she is going "voice off" that day just for the matter of principle, he or she should start looking for a job and get off disability because they are doing this just to catch the court system of "violating" his rights to an interpreter". Ouch!

As well as being deaf, I am also a w/chair user.

An elderly gentleman approached me some years back, he said "People like you play on their disability" whilst I was trying to get out of my car. My reply was " Yes some people do, I am not like you who has parked in a Disabled Parking Bay, abusing the system, not having a Blue Badge (Disabled Parking Pass) who has no mobility problems.

He got found out, and find £60.00, I never saw him again after that....

Had lots of people approach me and say your not deaf why are you signing, so I take my hearing aids off and hand them to them, then they appologise...
If I feel I need to use an Interpreter anytime such as for meetings/training courses then I do so.

defgrl

What gets me is that some places will get an interpreter for me, and then they will do it one time, but not the next. It creates a lot of anxiety for me, wondering if I will have "clear communication" with doctors, etc. Sometimes I can call and make my own appointments and ask for an interpreter. Other times, i it seems like I have to use a relay or an "advocate," because people don't listen to a word I say when I try to do it myself. It's like they don't get it or something.

I tried to get treated at a local "urgent care" recently and I was having a lot of trouble with my asthma, and I was "freaking out," (felt like I couldn't breathe), and this doctor refused to let me communicate with written English. He basically INSISTED that I speak, and I do NOT think that someone should be forced to communicate that way, especially when that person is having trouble breathing/is in pain, etc. I ended up just walking out.

Also, I have tried to communicate with some doctors, etc via spoken English and THEY DON'T SLOW DOWN. I wish people would FACE me, speak slowly and clearly, etc. Seems to me this sort of thing wld be COMMON SENSE.

CJB

Sometimes I don't talk, not as a matter of principle, but because most people can't register that I am both blind and hard of hearing when I talk. At first when I would explain verbally that I was deafblind and therefore needed to have them use the Braille card to communicate with me, they would just keep trying to talk to me. Now most of the time I just point to my ear and shake my head and then I show them my Braille card which has a short explanation of how to use it written directly on it.

Lighthouse77

I think he is pretty desperate as he is always looking for solution to his communication problems ... I feel for him because I've been in his shoes. Especially the isolation part.

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sallylou

What is "DSC?" I'm don't understand the situation here. In what context are you refusing to speak? Work, court of law, etc.