Deaf, HoH, Deaf Blind et al in a relationship with Hearing

DGirl101

DGirl101

New Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
694
Reaction score
0
This subject probably has come up many times. But I thought that this thread could be used for future references.
For those of you that are Deaf, HoH, Deaf Blind et al. tell us how your relationship is with a Hearing. And tell us what kinds of issues you face and how you overcame them.

Give us some tips, advice, suggestions, et al. to make the relationship work!

I will start off with mine.

I'm Deaf with a Hearing Man.

The major issue we have is communication. I am Oral Deaf with Sign Language as a second language. I read lips, but miss out on a lot still.

My relationship is Hearing Centered, but because we are having issues with communication it may turn out that we will be going Deaf Centered.

My advice to those that are hearing is this. Ask your significant other what works best for them. Lip reading, sign language, writing things down and so on. If you are with your hearing friends keep in mind that your significant other is going to miss out on a lot of things, especially when it comes to group occasions.

If you feel that you are relied on the majority of the time to interpret for your sig. other, and feel uncomfortable about it. Tell them....either that or immerse yourself in a Deaf Cultural Group setting, where you will 'see' most of the conversations around you.

I will put more up later.
 
I am blind/HOH, and our relationship is very much hearing centered. My wife knows the BSL manual but mostly prints on my palm. She speaks when it's quiet cause I can understand but will only resort to POP when I tell her I really can't make out what she's saying.
 
HOH/Deaf married to Hearing

We are a couple that uses oral communication. My first language is Spoken English and my second language is ASL. My husband has been trying to pick up sign because he knows of my hearing loss. I put in the title HOH/Deaf because as of last week, my doctor diagnosed me as being profoundly deaf. At this time, we are not sure it if is permanent or temporary so they are treating it. I have accepted my deafness despite what the ending results will be. My husband has been really good about tapping to get my attention, ensuring that I am looking at him when he talks to me, etc. But I do feel the sadness that he has. It is like I am more aware or sensitive to how he feels. Weird. But this is just the beginning for us so if this blog continues, I will add updates.
 
I am late-deafened married to a hearing man, and we have 2 hoh teenagers, 1 mild loss and the other moderate loss. I can still speak and now I can read lips if it's one on one mostly. The family is beginning to learn ASL with me. We also use pen and paper.

Hubby is making more of an effort to work on his communication skills as he was born with slight brain damage and can't spell well at all. He is speaking a little slower and makes sure to get face to face with me before speaking to me. His fingers can't handle texting on his cell phone, so that won't work.
 
I am prelingual deaf married to a hearing man. He is pretty good with ASL (you can ask the ADers who went to the AD meet last weekend) so our relationship has a good deaf/hearing balance.
 
I'm hearing (Hi everyone!) and close friends with a deaf man. Umm, it's sort of difficult, mostly on my part because i'm ot the greatest signer. But we read each other's lips, so that makes it easier.
 
Emdee said:
I'm hearing (Hi everyone!) and close friends with a deaf man. Umm, it's sort of difficult, mostly on my part because i'm ot the greatest signer. But we read each other's lips, so that makes it easier.
Click to expand...

Are you an MD of some kind?
 
Emdee said:
I'm hearing (Hi everyone!) and close friends with a deaf man. Umm, it's sort of difficult, mostly on my part because i'm ot the greatest signer. But we read each other's lips, so that makes it easier.
Click to expand...

If you're hearing, how come you're reading lips? Do you have an auditory processing disorder?
 
CJB said:
If you're hearing, how come you're reading lips? Do you have an auditory processing disorder?
Click to expand...

I'm reading lips because I can't catch the signs he makes. So he'll mouth it out and sign simultaniously, hoping I catch one or the other.
 
married to guy who considers himself deaf <prelingual>w/o HA's , doesn't sign at all and had no experience with it til after he and I had been together for a couple of years and I spent some time working in a program w/Deaf kids and Deaf staff one Summer. I taught him ILY sign. He prefers to be oral. He lipreads some. I started losing my hearing a couple of years ago. I also have issues w/auditory processing. I sign some and we use a few signs at home and also more gestures at home now but his strong preference is spoken English because that is how he was raised. He comes from a small, rural town and feel self-conscious about perceived "difference" in himself.
 
Back
Top