How many of you rarely meet/know deaf people in your whole life?

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sheila022

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For me, most of the deaf people I know are from my childhood, back in the days when I was in special classroom for deaf kids. I am still in contact with one or two of them, and another are the two-three deaf students at MIT. One left for Galludet graduate school.

But when I was growing up in middle and high school, I tend to be the only one in my school, and I haven't really met or heard about my deaf peers in surrounding areas I lived in?

And then I came across AD, which has SO MANY deafies, and met Jiro, the first AD person I met.

How many of you were like this?
 
I was 1 of only 3 deaf kids in my high school (and the only one in elementary school once I was mainstreamed). My high school had over 2000 students so I was lucky if I could find them. I stay in touch with one of them today still. But I live in a really large metro area where I know so many from childhood camps and deaf activities -- I still stay in touch with most of them today. I just wish I had gotten to be a part of their school lives -- they sounded so much better than mine !!!
 
There was only one other HOH girl in my school that I knew of. But we did not really get along .I never had a deaf or HOH friend in my whole life.
I just remember I had a college guidance counselor and she was deaf and two Mass. Rehab. counselors
that were deaf and I took a sign language class in Ca. and the teacher was deaf. This was over 30 years ago. I meet a guy the HOH in the library that HOH and I run into him once in awhile . He is the only person that meet recently.
 
The only deaf people I personally know was my great - aunt and my older sister.. outside of my family, the first deaf person I met was a girl who handled ttys and other deaf technologies pay by Vocational Rehab Service. This was when I was in my middle 20's when I was just getting in college after a few years of working at a nursing home. I wanted a career change. Then I met another at college, he was late-deafened. and another at work as a cashier ( She and the VRS girl both sign and speak but they prefer signing). Then a deaf person came and work in my house and I got to know him alittle. He is also oral and signing deaf but he prefer speaking... but boy, we were very frustrated with each other with our oral and speechreading skills, just like the late deafened I met in college, and just like my older sister... and the other deaf people I met that tried to use their speech skills with me because I didn't know ASL. ( all of them were hearing aid users, but I was a CI user... but my CI didn't make the situation any better). I can communicate hearing people a whole lot better.
 
There was one girl in my class who wore HAs but she did not want to associate with me due to a lot of bullies in the class. It was in my first year of High school (Junior High). I would come across several people who wore HAs and were oral deaf like me but I rarely came across anyone who used sign language until recently while I was in Australia.
 
I was the only deaf kid in every one of my schools except 1st to 3rd grade, when I was in spec ed with others. Teachers said I was 'too smart' for the class so my parents put me in regular public schools.

I only had one deaf friend that lived a couple miles away, we used to ride bikes every single weekend.

When I enrolled into NTID, I was overwhelmed with joy at being with others like me.

Now that I am married with two teenagers and working full-time, I don't get to socialize much anymore. Probably will socialize more when the kids are out of the house in a few years.
 
By coincidence a boy down my street was also deaf and my same age so we were in the same class. By junior high they just dumped everyone to mainstream without any real assistance, so he could not keep up and his family moved to a smaller town. I haven't kept up with any others.

I did have deaf grandparents, but they are dead now. My husband's grandfather was full deaf also.

After high school I spent three years in group home living with other maladjusted deaf and other handicapped youth.

In adulthood other than my moderately hoh husband, the only deaf people I really interacted much with were kids in my children's school.

And then of course teacher's of ASL from my local deaf center who are deaf.
 
I grew up seeing a lot of deaf people because my brother went to a Deaf school while I was mainstreamed but I didn't want anything to do with them out of shame of my deafness. However, my best friend who is deaf and I met when we were 18 months old and grew up together although we went to different schools until high school.

At 25 years old, I started taking ASL classes and started my involvement with the Phx Deaf community. I didn't become a member overnight..it took a while but once I enrolled at Gallaudet University my world imediately changed from a predominately hearing world to a Deaf world. It has been 10 years since I enrolled at Gallaudet and my life has been much much better since then.
 
shel90 said:
I grew up seeing a lot of deaf people because my brother went to a Deaf school while I was mainstreamed but I didn't want anything to do with them out of shame of my deafness. However, my best friend who is deaf and I met when we were 18 months old and grew up together although we went to different schools until high school.

At 25 years old, I started taking ASL classes and started my involvement with the Phx Deaf community. I didn't become a member overnight..it took a while but once I enrolled at Gallaudet University my world imediately changed from a predominately hearing world to a Deaf world. It has been 10 years since I enrolled at Gallaudet and my life has been much much better since then.
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That's interesting! Jiro had expressed similar sentiment to me--that he was in the middle, but became part of the deaf world later on....and he really strongly encourage me to learn ASL..which I"m considering doing it later on.
 
When I first went to a special classroom in the 1st grade at my age of 9 years old which is old. There were about six or seven of us deaf pupils and then I had to jump from 5th to 6th with new set of deaf pupils. I am glad I did. We were mostly in oral-only program and no sign language were not allowed in both elementary and high school. I was upset because it was very difficult for me to lipread or trying to lipread with teachers and with deaf pupils. I went to Faribault (not sure how to spell the town name), Minnesota School for the Deaf for the homecoming football game and there I learned how to sign with them and it was great. One of my deaf friend from my school communicated with me in signs and that was off campus (on campus meaning not on high school ground when we were not allowed to sign at all). We had a fun time really understand each other better.

That is why after I graduated from high school, I learned to sign better with ASL and communicated with the Deaf Communities whether I was in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Seattle, Washington, Riverside, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico before coming to Canada. I love meeting and signing with Deaf people and it does make my life simpler in the Deaf world better than in the hearing world.

When I started having my first computer in 2006, I tried to find some of my old deaf friends from my high school days. I found few of them and others have not come in yet. One of my deaf friends died less than a year ago. I kept and still keep in touch with them on facebook. They surely look good to me after all these years. Wow! :thumb:
 
Sheila,
Why not learn some ASL now and then when you meet other ADers IRL then you'll pick up on more signs. It's fun! :)

Cheers
 
Miss-Delectable said:
Sheila,
Why not learn some ASL now and then when you meet other ADers IRL then you'll pick up on more signs. It's fun! :)

Cheers
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Hrmm...I googled for ASL clasees near to my home. There doesn't seem to be one. The nearest one is in Hartford or more towards NYC area. I guess I'll have to stick with online or take ASL classes at Harvard when I return to MIT.
 
sheila022 said:
For me, most of the deaf people I know are from my childhood, back in the days when I was in special classroom for deaf kids. I am still in contact with one or two of them, and another are the two-three deaf students at MIT. One left for Galludet graduate school.

But when I was growing up in middle and high school, I tend to be the only one in my school, and I haven't really met or heard about my deaf peers in surrounding areas I lived in?

And then I came across AD, which has SO MANY deafies, and met Jiro, the first AD person I met.

How many of you were like this?
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There was nobody near the level of deafness like mine where I went to school growing up. But I did go to Deaf Camp (once a year for one week) and learned a bit of ASL there. Good times. Taught me a lot of good things there.

Sometimes I'll drop in at deaf socials but still a bit shy. Taking ASL 2 in the spring.
 
In my teens, hung out with two Deaf guys who I met through other friends (they all went to same high school)... as an adult, I've had a Deaf co-worker, and met a few Deaf people at conferences...but overall, don't meet a lot of Deaf adults.
 
Count me out because I have been keeping by meeting, socializing and contacting with a majority of deaf/ hoh friends and the community ever since I was born especially while I was raised in mainstreamed schools and was the only deaf student at my alma mater.
 
i went thru school up to college without any deaf in my schools. so when i finally got to a deaf college i was all assbackwards. getting signs made for new opportunities.
 
Until just two years ago, I had only met a handful of deaf/hoh people in my entire life, and they were only fleeting acquaintances at that. Then I started learning ASL, tutoring deaf students in English, and started going to Deaf events. It's been a great journey so far, and it promises to get even better.
 
sheila022 said:
Hrmm...I googled for ASL clasees near to my home. There doesn't seem to be one. The nearest one is in Hartford or more towards NYC area. I guess I'll have to stick with online or take ASL classes at Harvard when I return to MIT.
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I don't recommend taking ASL class at school where there is no deaf students. Best to take it at Boston University with strong deaf program. It's comical to learn ASL from hearie.
 
sheila022 said:
For me, most of the deaf people I know are from my childhood, back in the days when I was in special classroom for deaf kids. I am still in contact with one or two of them, and another are the two-three deaf students at MIT. One left for Galludet graduate school.

But when I was growing up in middle and high school, I tend to be the only one in my school, and I haven't really met or heard about my deaf peers in surrounding areas I lived in?

And then I came across AD, which has SO MANY deafies, and met Jiro, the first AD person I met.

How many of you were like this?
Click to expand...

grew up not knowing anything about deaf culture/world/people until couple years ago when I met Alex. he introduced me to deaf world and there I started my deaf journey. it was a cultural shock because I never knew it existed.

it's been great so far. :cool2:
 
Jiro said:
I don't recommend taking ASL class at school where there is no deaf students. Best to take it at Boston University with strong deaf program. It's comical to learn ASL from hearie.
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yeah he's right. i cant' remember what the asl teacher's name i think something with Ben. He's an awesome one. I used to live in boston, actually it was in brighton. I lived there for less than a year. There are tons of deaf people working at the Learning center school in farmingham. If your major has something that matchs at school then you could have a short time as an internship there so that way you could have advantage of learning ASL from there. It's up to you.
 
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