People Who See Your Hearing Device In Public And Start Signing

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HappinessCounts

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I have encountered a few deaf or non-deaf individuals who come up and ask if I sign or if I am deaf.

Recently, a woman who appeared hearing but fluent in sign stopped and asked if I sign. I said a little. She introduced herself and asked my name. I said my name. She left and said, "sorry, I thought you signed."

I think she was expecting me to sign my name. I don't have a sign name. I am clueless too but I am sensing some people take it personal that I am not signing with them. In my personal life, there just aren't enough people to sign with or people who know much. You have to join deaf events which I never go to because I am not an extrovert.

Most people seem to assume you sign if they see you with a hearing device. Doesn't the school they learn sign teach them that all deaf people are different in communicating?

What should I do to make the conversation less awkward? It's only a few people who seem awkward by it but others who are cool with it.
 
If it bothers you a lot, just change your hair to cover.

I used to wear a lot of ASL shirts, but I quit due to random strangers getting too friendly.
 
HappinessCounts said:
I have encountered a few deaf or non-deaf individuals who come up and ask if I sign or if I am deaf.

Recently, a woman who appeared hearing but fluent in sign stopped and asked if I sign. I said a little. She introduced herself and asked my name. I said my name. She left and said, "sorry, I thought you signed."

I think she was expecting me to sign my name. I don't have a sign name. I am clueless too but I am sensing some people take it personal that I am not signing with them. In my personal life, there just aren't enough people to sign with or people who know much. You have to join deaf events which I never go to because I am not an extrovert.

Most people seem to assume you sign if they see you with a hearing device. Doesn't the school they learn sign teach them that all deaf people are different in communicating?

What should I do to make the conversation less awkward? It's only a few people who seem awkward by it but others who are cool with it.
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sorry i don't sign..seems to be a good start.

and why not learn sign?
 
Bottesini said:
If it bothers you a lot, just change your hair to cover.

I used to wear a lot of ASL shirts, but I quit due to random strangers getting too friendly.
Click to expand...

It doesn't happen that often. It doesn't bother me to show my device--just the assumption that all deaf communicate the same. I bet you know the feeling due to your ASL shirts.
 
hoichi said:
sorry i don't sign..seems to be a good start.

and why not learn sign?
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Because I would have to go to deaf events for that and I am not an extrovert, so I don't bother. Most people don't know sign language like 99 percent of the time.
 
HappinessCounts said:
Because I would have to go to deaf events for that and I am not an extrovert, so I don't bother. Most people don't know sign language like 99 percent of the time.
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One does not necessarily involve the other. While deaf events would introduce you to other signers, you do not have to go. I am not big with groups or crowded places... not really an introvert or an extrovert, all depends on the day and who I am with... but I manage without deaf events (except when I get kidnapped lol)
But learning sign does not mean you have to do anything, everyone learns and is comfortable in different ways and environments...
 
I have to agree regarding non-signing deaf and HoH being constantly confused with cultural deaf signers. This is down to two major issues, successful ASL/BSL promotion, and unsuccessful and apathetic HI/HoH awareness. Ideally A/BSL and lip-reading, and hearing aid, CI use, would be promoted equally so as to be accepted as a norm. No one size fits all, what's the problem ? It does make problems, because mistaken assumptions are being picked up by support systems. I know some here simply state 'learn to sign..' that is all there is to it, and go off on a some tangent of oppression, because that choice isn't what HI want to make. Maybe they want a better loop system, a better hearing aid, or better access to text or lip-or cued-speaking, we need to appreciate people's right of preference, and that it doesn't mean because a non-signing option has been chosen, they are anti, it is just what people think works better for them. I'm for a holistic approach for access not a biased one.
 
I think it's worst when a person see your hearing aid and looks at you with pity . I was a peace rally once and a woman I was trying to talk to kept looking at my HA and look of pity on her face the whole time . UGH ! I can't talk to people like and I didn't say anything b/c I was with my daughter and granddaughter . I wanted
to tell the woman to save her pity for the innocents kids caught in the middle of the war !
 
MM2 said:
I have to agree regarding non-signing deaf and HoH being constantly confused with cultural deaf signers. This is down to two major issues, successful ASL/BSL promotion, and unsuccessful and apathetic HI/HoH awareness. Ideally A/BSL and lip-reading, and hearing aid, CI use, would be promoted equally so as to be accepted as a norm. No one size fits all, what's the problem ? It does make problems, because mistaken assumptions are being picked up by support systems. I know some here simply state 'learn to sign..' that is all there is to it, and go off on a some tangent of oppression, because that choice isn't what HI want to make. Maybe they want a better loop system, a better hearing aid, or better access to text or lip-or cued-speaking, we need to appreciate people's right of preference, and that it doesn't mean because a non-signing option has been chosen, they are anti, it is just what people think works better for them. I'm for a holistic approach for access not a biased one.
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a tangent no less..
 
Jezie said:
One does not necessarily involve the other. While deaf events would introduce you to other signers, you do not have to go. I am not big with groups or crowded places... not really an introvert or an extrovert, all depends on the day and who I am with... but I manage without deaf events (except when I get kidnapped lol)
But learning sign does not mean you have to do anything, everyone learns and is comfortable in different ways and environments...
Click to expand...

Jezie,

I find that when deaf know other deaf, they know you all over the city. lol Don't you find that to be true? It's a little odd for me. A deaf man at a store said, "I haven't seen you before." I have to admit it is a little strange, but I know that he was just trying to remember other deafies in his area.
 
It's shame there is an immediate claim of going off on a tangent, when everything is relative in the hearing loss. It is 'them and us' all the time, which is boring as well as divisive. The majority of deaf people and the majority with hearing loss are NOT cultural, do we just dismiss them ? It is a great shame we are divided this way. Is it impossible to promote deaf culture if they include others ?
 
MM2 said:
It's shame there is an immediate claim of going off on a tangent, when everything is relative in the hearing loss. It is 'them and us' all the time, which is boring as well as divisive. The majority of deaf people and the majority with hearing loss are NOT cultural, do we just dismiss them ? It is a great shame we are divided this way. Is it impossible to promote deaf culture if they include others ?
Click to expand...
I agree with you a lot on this ! I was born HOH and never been a part of the deaf culture for a very good reason , there was none in my town while growing up and none in any of the public schools I went to so I was apart of the hearing population my whole life . I don't like the idea of 'them and us ' I like knowing people from all walks of lives and I don't judge people by their disabilities.
 
HappinessCounts said:
Jezie,

I find that when deaf know other deaf, they know you all over the city. lol Don't you find that to be true? It's a little odd for me. A deaf man at a store said, "I haven't seen you before." I have to admit it is a little strange, but I know that he was just trying to remember other deafies in his area.
Click to expand...
Stick around long enough and it becomes less odd... I have had deaf I do not know come up and know who I was... it is a small community and signs travel fast lol
 
MM2 said:
It's shame there is an immediate claim of going off on a tangent,
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you brought the word tangent into this.
MM2 said:
that is all there is to it, and go off on a some tangent of oppression, because that choice isn't what HI want to make.
Click to expand...

MM2 said:
when everything is relative in the hearing loss. It is 'them and us' all the time, which is boring as well as divisive. The majority of deaf people and the majority with hearing loss are NOT cultural, do we just dismiss them ? It is a great shame we are divided this way. Is it impossible to promote deaf culture if they include others ?
Click to expand...

we include everyone who wants to be Deaf, a part of culture, learn our ways and values, and learn and use our language and sees himself as Deaf..

you invited too...

but

we don't accept people who don't want to learn and use our language, don't want to be in our culture or a part of our culture,, and don't have any respect for our values and our ways..

if that is difficult to understand i maybe able to put it to you another way..
but thats the nutshell of it..
 
I must refer you to the title of this forum it says 'alldeaf' it doesn't say all CULTURAL deaf, if it is you should say this at the start. I don't accept ANYONE who doesn't accept others. What suggests to you I DON'T sign ? I do actually, but it just isn't a practicable proposition where I live as I am the only one who knows it. I think you have been in the deaf world too long, there is a whole new world out there (I thought the USA was the new world, my mistake). I don't have any issue accepting other people's culture, but it is dependent on them respecting me too. What you give, you get,if that is aggression, navel contemplation, and an inability understand most deaf do not sign at all, well..... maybe that's why.. You will never achieve equality until a playing field is level, and that means you have to include others and compromise, that is, unless you are happy to live in a vacuum anyway.
 
MM2 said:
I must refer you to the title of this forum it says 'alldeaf' it doesn't say all CULTURAL deaf, if it is you should say this at the start. I don't accept ANYONE who doesn't accept others. What suggests to you I DON'T sign ? I do actually, but it just isn't a practicable proposition where I live as I am the only one who knows it. I think you have been in the deaf world too long, there is a whole new world out there (I thought the USA was the new world, my mistake). I don't have any issue accepting other people's culture, but it is dependent on them respecting me too. What you give, you get,if that is aggression, navel contemplation, and an inability understand most deaf do not sign at all, well..... maybe that's why.. You will never achieve equality until a playing field is level, and that means you have to include others and compromise, that is, unless you are happy to live in a vacuum anyway.
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:rofl:You may not be culturally Deaf, but he is.

He's telling you his feelings.

Then you come back and posture and are furious he has feelings that don't match yours...
 
I can't remember this ever happening to me. In fact it has been so long since I ever saw anyone signing around town (like in a store) that I can't remember when it was.
 
I come across this fairly routinely...someone signing in a store, getting coffee, whatever. Not every day but it's not rare. We don't live in an urban area anymore either. Do you live in a really tiny town, Jane?
 
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