Samantha_kathy
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- Joined
- Oct 11, 2010
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Hello everyone 
I thought I'd introduce myself now that I've registered.
I'm a hearing person and no-one in my immediate family is deaf, but about a year ago I was helping in my mother's store where I got to talking to one of her frequent costomers. He is hard of hearing (uses hearing aids) and his wife is completely deaf. In our conversation, I mentioned to him that I would rather lose my hearing than my sight, for I believed that it would be easier to adapt to being deaf than being blind, as well as the fact that I believed that a deaf person is far more able to get around as it were than a blind person. (Also, I love to read and would hate to lose that.) He replied by saying that his wife wishes just the opposite, she would rather be blind than deaf, for she believes that being deaf cuts her off from much of the world. He gave an example of her being in the train when they used the intercom to tell everyone to get out because the train was broken. She didn't know what was going on when everyone left, because she hadn't heard it.
It's a conversation that still plays around in my head. It's also what started me on my journey that eventually brought me here, even though I have not spoken to this man since then. At first, I just started to notice things pertaining to being deaf around me, like people knowing sign language in tv shows (Grissom in CSI, Gibbs and Abby in NCIS). It was when I was watching some re-runs from CSI, where Grissom is losing his hearing, that I realized that most of the people depicted in fiction (whether it be tv or books) that are either deaf or becoming deaf don't want to be deaf, feel it is deficient, fight against it basically. I started wondering if there was another opinion, for I still felt (and feel, to be frank) that being deaf is not such a big deal (no disrespect meant, but I don't see it as a big handicap as so many people do, for aside from not hearing sound, there is nothing wrong with deaf people).
I started searching for other opinions and ended up here, where I lurked and read for quite some time. I discovered that yes, a lot of people do not have a problem with being deaf, are in fact, quite proud to be Deaf. I, as a writer (of both original and fanfiction stories) and avid reader, then started to search for fiction that showed that side of the coin. Actually, I started doing this after reading a comment in a thread (don't remember which one) that said something along the lines of: I wish people would write about characters who are deaf, instead of deaf characters. The pickings were meager, to say the least. There were some good stories out there about accepting to be deaf, but not much about a character who was deaf. Actually, fanfiction is where I found the closest story with viewpoint I had been looking, a Sentinel story where the author had written the main character as blind and mute and from his POV, where the handicap was just a part of him, not the plot. But as for a book or story where a deaf character is playing a big part without it being about being deaf, I still haven't found it.
Anyway, a long story short, after reading so much threads here, I decided to stop lurking and just join you all. :roll: How I manage to be shy even from behind a computer I will never know...
I thought I'd introduce myself now that I've registered. I'm a hearing person and no-one in my immediate family is deaf, but about a year ago I was helping in my mother's store where I got to talking to one of her frequent costomers. He is hard of hearing (uses hearing aids) and his wife is completely deaf. In our conversation, I mentioned to him that I would rather lose my hearing than my sight, for I believed that it would be easier to adapt to being deaf than being blind, as well as the fact that I believed that a deaf person is far more able to get around as it were than a blind person. (Also, I love to read and would hate to lose that.) He replied by saying that his wife wishes just the opposite, she would rather be blind than deaf, for she believes that being deaf cuts her off from much of the world. He gave an example of her being in the train when they used the intercom to tell everyone to get out because the train was broken. She didn't know what was going on when everyone left, because she hadn't heard it.
It's a conversation that still plays around in my head. It's also what started me on my journey that eventually brought me here, even though I have not spoken to this man since then. At first, I just started to notice things pertaining to being deaf around me, like people knowing sign language in tv shows (Grissom in CSI, Gibbs and Abby in NCIS). It was when I was watching some re-runs from CSI, where Grissom is losing his hearing, that I realized that most of the people depicted in fiction (whether it be tv or books) that are either deaf or becoming deaf don't want to be deaf, feel it is deficient, fight against it basically. I started wondering if there was another opinion, for I still felt (and feel, to be frank) that being deaf is not such a big deal (no disrespect meant, but I don't see it as a big handicap as so many people do, for aside from not hearing sound, there is nothing wrong with deaf people).
I started searching for other opinions and ended up here, where I lurked and read for quite some time. I discovered that yes, a lot of people do not have a problem with being deaf, are in fact, quite proud to be Deaf. I, as a writer (of both original and fanfiction stories) and avid reader, then started to search for fiction that showed that side of the coin. Actually, I started doing this after reading a comment in a thread (don't remember which one) that said something along the lines of: I wish people would write about characters who are deaf, instead of deaf characters. The pickings were meager, to say the least. There were some good stories out there about accepting to be deaf, but not much about a character who was deaf. Actually, fanfiction is where I found the closest story with viewpoint I had been looking, a Sentinel story where the author had written the main character as blind and mute and from his POV, where the handicap was just a part of him, not the plot. But as for a book or story where a deaf character is playing a big part without it being about being deaf, I still haven't found it.
Anyway, a long story short, after reading so much threads here, I decided to stop lurking and just join you all. :roll: How I manage to be shy even from behind a computer I will never know...
to AD!
