If there was a magic pill that cure deafness...

dreama said:
Yes, people can understand total blindness much easier although you can sometimes have the reverse problem of people helping wheras no help is really needed or even wanted.

Yes, I've had that happen to me before. Sometimes it's not uncommon for me to have a 15 minute conversation with a sighted person telling them that I *don't* need help and that the only thing I need is the answer to a simple question (such as, "Is Smith Street directly in front of me?").

On the other hand fluctuating vision, functional blindness and partial sight can be harder for people to understand. My ex flat mates just never could understand my functional blindness and kept accusing me of faking it. Functional blindness (or what they used to term hysterical conversion) is NOT the same as faking it.

Very true. One of my best friends has 20/200 vision and is frustrated at having to constantly explain what she can and can't see. Some people have even accused her of faking it because "legally blind people can't read print."

There is also seems bad feeling among certain blind people towards those with more sight.

Yes, I saw this kind of thing taking place while in training for both of my guide dogs. However, I've also seen the reverse -- particularly in residential schools for the blind. Case in point: totally blind students aren't given the same privileges as partially sighted students. For example, totally blind students must be accompanied by a partially sighted student when they go off-campus even if they are able to travel independently.
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Would I take a hearin' pill to make me hear normally? Sure maybe. All my life I have been able to hear out of only one ear - with that one ear declining as time passes by.

When I tell people I am partially deaf they are confused like - your'e deaf? But how can you hear music? How can you hear speech?

I can hear music, I can feel the tempo, and I can read lips. There have been some times where people believed I was faking it.

When I meet a deaf person face to face I am sure they will also be somewhat puzzled.

I dont worry about it - as Tousi said - It's just what it is.
 
Dixie said:
Would I take a hearin' pill to make me hear normally? Sure maybe. All my life I have been able to hear out of only one ear - with that one ear declining as time passes by.

When I tell people I am partially deaf they are confused like - your'e deaf? But how can you hear music? How can you hear speech?

I can hear music, I can feel the tempo, and I can read lips. There have been some times where people believed I was faking it.

When I meet a deaf person face to face I am sure they will also be somewhat puzzled.

I dont worry about it - as Tousi said - It's just what it is.
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Agreed! :cheers:
 
Nope, I wouldn't take it. I don't want a "cure" to my deafness. I rather get a cochlear implant, that way I can still be deaf when I choose to be deaf. Would be nice to be part of the hearing world from time to time, but I also like being part of the deaf world too.
 
Can you imagine if life was reversed? It would be a deaf world and very few hearing people around. Hearing people would have to learn how to deal with the deaf...

Just like we deaf have to learn how to deal with the hearing people...

Hearing enters a resturants, tries to order but can't because hearing does not know our universal language - sign language. Has to write down on paper instead...

Or they take a class, but they have to hire an interpreter to interpret what the deaf teachers are saying...

The deaf people would look at the hearing people and look..and..stare..."wow! look! he is hearing"!

"look mom, that woman is not signing!" "Yes Virginia, that woman is hearing, don't point"...

Deaf signing to a hearing customer, "do you read signs"...
(as opposed to hearing asking a deaf, "do you read lips")

Deaf people telling each other, "that hearing signs funny".
(like hearing saying, "this deaf person talks funny")

Well, you get the idea. What a world it would be...
Better or worse?
Something to pounder about...
 
Eh, it's easier for hearing people to learn sign language since they have eyes.
Sign language is a visual language, unlike spoken which require deaf people to hear. Thus it's harder for deaf people to learn, but blind people have easier time.

It's blind people who will have harder time when trying to learn sign language. But again they can use touch method. So in a sense no one is missing anything out. Blind people maybe miss out conversation surrounding them but they would still be able to order food or talk to people one on one. They will need an interpreter for school or hospital, though.

It's worser for people who are armless. Right? Sort of like person who is mute.

Too bad the world is making lives of those that's different harder than need to be.
 
Silentwolfdog said:
...

Too bad the world is making lives of those that's different harder than need to be.
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Ah...on the contrary, that is not true! It is simply a matter of the the greatest good the greatest number. In other words, the common denominator for 98% plus of the world is spoken language. From that perspective, that is quite admirable. It is when you are of the other persuasion, that it becomes problematical. Unfortunately, this will always be the case and worst yet...life is unfair.
 
sr171soars said:
Ah...on the contrary, that is not true! It is simply a matter of the the greatest good the greatest number. In other words, the common denominator for 98% plus of the world is spoken language. From that perspective, that is quite admirable. It is when you are of the other persuasion, that it becomes problematical. Unfortunately, this will always be the case and worst yet...life is unfair.
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I am not talking about spoken language or sign language. This is a case that I should have make myself clear. What I mean was, I am talking about people that refused to provide things that other people need such as ramps in some location or provide captioning to all movie theatre. Those things actually does not hurt people who are "normal" but...they don't want it or they will fight against it...hard. They just want thing their "way" even if had to, make people who are different suffer for it.

Basically what I was saying that life is unfair when it wasn't need to be that way. I understand what's it like to be outsider in world that basically refuse to accommodation to me or deaf people in general unless we request or even fight against them just to live a normal and pleasure life. So I don't want same thing happen to other people. If that person need a best parking lot in the town due to their limits, then I would gladly give up that space. Why do I need to make that person's life harder than need to be? That's my point. Lot of people just don't see that way.

Those paragraphs should have be added to that one sentence lol and even that last sentence I put down was somewhere off topic. lol
 
I would take the pill out of a sense of curiosity and adventure. I wouldn't see it as a threat to who I am, although I would tend to agree with S171Soars that the downside would be no longer having the silence at night or whenever I want during the day. I'm 36 and my whole life has already been shaped by being deaf, it's not as if I would radically change in personality.
 
R2D2 said:
I would take the pill out of a sense of curiosity and adventure. I wouldn't see it as a threat to who I am, although I would tend to agree with S171Soars that the downside would be no longer having the silence at night or whenever I want during the day. I'm 36 and my whole life has already been shaped by being deaf, it's not as if I would radically change in personality.
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Yeah, in fact I think probably more than 90% of deaf who took magic pill will have problem sleeping at the night due to lack of silence, including me. I am sure they can build a special bedroom that is soundproof (right word?) or have special ear plug to help get rid of noise through the night. Some hearing people also have that problem and they find different way to overcome this, so I am sure deaf people can also.
 
shel90 said:
If I can do that with the option to going back to being deaf, maybe I would try it. I would be scared cuz what if I dont like being hearing? Like in that movie with Val Kilmer who played a blind man who got a chance to see and when he finally did, it was too overwhelming for him so he wanted to go back to being blind. I cant remember the name of it but it was very interesting cuz it is about the brain never learning how to "see".
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WOW bring up to my memory.....yes I been watch that movie. It is good.

Image: At First Sight: Val Kilmer,Mira Sorvino,Kelly McGillis,Steven Weber,Bruce Davison,Nathan Lane,Ken Howard,Laura Kirk,Margo Winkler,Diana Krall,Brett Robbins,Willie C. Carpenter,Charles Winkler,Drena De Niro,Kelly Chapman,Jack Dodick,Nina Grisco
 
saw the movie - Star Trek 4 that there was a pill that make kidney grow the new one. amazing fiction it is.
 
Hear Again said:
Yes, I saw this kind of thing taking place while in training for both of my guide dogs. However, I've also seen the reverse -- particularly in residential schools for the blind. Case in point: totally blind students aren't given the same privileges as partially sighted students. For example, totally blind students must be accompanied by a partially sighted student when they go off-campus even if they are able to travel independently.
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That must have been frustrating for the blind kids. Especially as there is no reason why a totally blind person can't go to the shops on their own.

I noticed also in college for blind about their been bad feeling among some blind and partially sighted as they are being treated differantly. So I suppose Jalousy is bound to occur.
 
I never understood the "silence at night" (bedtime) refrain...I thought just as at any other time during the day, you learn to mask, push back, filter, ignore, etc the extraneous sounds to the rear granary of your mind. So why shouldn't that be any different IF IF you wore the CI to bed?
 
No. I will not take the pill because I am too proud to be deaf. If I pick yes then why I give up on my CI?
 
RDC_girl said:
Is there a pill that will make me deaf? Sometimes I think that would make my life so much easier!

Let me explain - i have tinnitus and no one really knows what I go through. My mom yells at me because she thinks I am ignoring her when really I just didnt hear her. People think I am lying when I say I cant hear them and it annoys me
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I'd knock people over to get ahold of that. I feel your pain.


dreama said:
On the other hand fluctuating vision, functional blindness and partial sight can be harder for people to understand. My ex flat mates just never could understand my functional blindness and kept accusing me of faking it. Functional blindness (or what they used to term hysterical conversion) is NOT the same as faking it.
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Being HoH, I've experienced the same thing. A teacher even made me cry once accusing me of making my hearing problem up and giving me a needlessly hard time. :(
 
morbid-mongoose said:
I'd knock people over to get ahold of that. I feel your pain.




Being HoH, I've experienced the same thing. A teacher even made me cry once accusing me of making my hearing problem up and giving me a needlessly hard time. :(
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That's what I am worried with the children getting their CIs that the public school educators wont believe them that they still have hearing issues and dont hear like hearing children. Too many public school educators dont have the background training on deaf ed and they really dont know how to address deaf/hoh children's needs in the public school systems.

I am profoundly deaf and have good speech skills and because of that, my teachers yelled at me for not "listening" to the lessons. I tell them that I cant hear well but it seemed like they couldnt believe me cuz they kept saying "U talk too well so pay attention!" :roll:
 
shel90 said:
I tell them that I cant hear well but it seemed like they couldnt believe me cuz they kept saying "U talk too well so pay attention!" :roll:
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I didn't start to loose my hearing until a couple of years ago, so my speech is almost crystal. But seriously, that's a stupid assumption. Yes we talk well, but that doesn't make us hear any better. :ugh:
 
Not really. Form follows function. This from a first "glance" kind of thing. Unless the hearing are around the deaf and most are not, they simply make the observation if one can speak well then the person can hear. I don't see why this is considered in poor taste...it is very logical. They are simply going from they have seen from experience with most if not all people who speak can hear. Everybody makes assumptions about situations because it makes life easier. Every now and then, people make mistakes and I hardly think that justifies the "negative" comments. Nobody is perfect. Bottomline, allow these people some slack as they will eventually figure it out.

I have been in situations that some have mentioned about being able to speak but not hear (my HA or now CI would be out for whatever reason). It is funny trying to let them know that I can't hear at the moment but speak very clearly to them. Typically, I get a second glance as they aren't sure what the deal is because it doesn't make sense to them. I make sure that I convey that I mean what I say and keep a quiet demeanor and usually they are fine with that. Often I can "carry on" enough of a conversation that takes care of whatever they were asking in the first place.
 
sr171soars said:
Not really. Form follows function. This from a first "glance" kind of thing. Unless the hearing are around the deaf and most are not, they simply make the observation if one can speak well then the person can hear. I don't see why this is considered in poor taste...it is very logical. They are simply going from they have seen from experience with most if not all people who speak can hear. Everybody makes assumptions about situations because it makes life easier. Every now and then, people make mistakes and I hardly think that justifies the "negative" comments. Nobody is perfect. Bottomline, allow these people some slack as they will eventually figure it out.

I have been in situations that some have mentioned about being able to speak but not hear (my HA or now CI would be out for whatever reason). It is funny trying to let them know that I can't hear at the moment but speak very clearly to them. Typically, I get a second glance as they aren't sure what the deal is because it doesn't make sense to them. I make sure that I convey that I mean what I say and keep a quiet demeanor and usually they are fine with that. Often I can "carry on" enough of a conversation that takes care of whatever they were asking in the first place.
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I was talking about the teachers who wouldnt believe me that I couldnt understand what they were saying half of the time and they were supposed to be the adults instead of yelling at me like that. Of course, that is gonna make me feel negative about them cuz I got into trouble for something I couldnt help. If they had been more understanding or bothered to learn a little more about deafness, this wouldnt have been a problem for me.
 
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