Where do the Hard of Hearing fall on the Hearing -Deaf Spectrum

Mostly the world is moving too fast and needs to sort of ease up a little bit. Make more love. Smell the flowers. Put the guns down. Take a deep breath and keep doing it. Be nice to each other. Be nice to all the animals.
Love God. Be generous. Quit taking ourselves so darn serious. We all get whacked in the end anyway. We got the tools now to universally have good and comfortable lives and keep doing that for a very long time on an awesome place in the universe.
 
Frisky Feline said:
I see, that it's your expereince. Ok. but let you know that i do socialize with HOH people who does not know ASL and still chat with them. it's up to them if they want to learn ASL or not. BUT from my own experience, and own witness, they are learning ASL at a much later that I ve already socialized with. :dunno2:
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I have same the experience as Vactionguy when I was in collage, I went to the office for the deaf and hoh students to get some help there where only deaf students there and when I asked them a question , I only got a look that could kill . I had no reason to learn ASL as I grew up in a hearing world . I only knew one hoh person when I was in school, and we did not like one another. I was older than the students too, I think the students may had been immature . I was shocked when some students laugh at blind student when he accidently sat in a chair he thought was empty .
 
ambrosia said:
okay, but is this really something you feel, or are you adopting and regurgitating other people's thoughts and feelings? Because that isn't really self discovery that's more like conforming for acceptance.

Answer honestly, do you feel you have a hearing impaiment? Notice I asked if you felt you have one, not that you are hearing impaired. I know it's subtle, but there is a difference. If you really feel you do not, good on you.

I can understand the Deaf Community distate for that word, and others like it. Childhood is hard enough without having difficulties such of deafness on top of it, so I can understand someone's feeling that were deaf from birth and their dislike of any words and the connotations they feel associated with them such as hearing impaired, hearing disability.


Me? I'm late deafened, I don't have a problem with any of those words. I generally refer to myself as HOH or deaf, but anyone can use whichever it doesn't bother me, they can make a new word and use that I don't care. A rose by any other name is still a rose. But if you're really on some self discovery learning mission, examine how you truly feel about things.That's just my 2 cents.
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Its good that you point that out, yes there is a difference in learning about who you are as a person and being on a quest to find acceptance. In reality your not going to find this so-called acceptance within anybody else, you have to find it within yourself. Identity is not an issue. I was BORN HoH, I called myself hearing impaired because I didn't know any better, and it was in reference to the title that hearing people give to those who can't hear as well as them. When I was first introduced to this concept, I really thought about it, I have always lived my life without giving a 2nd thought about my hearing loss as a real setback in my life because...well it isn't a setback. So knowing this, implying that there's something "impaired" about me is irrelevant. That is what I FEEL :) That is "discovering" that the original term hearing impaired does not apply to me. So the answer is no, I am not regurgitating others peoples concepts an ideas, a person who does that has no true sense of self. I develop my own ideas and opinions about different aspects of life based on experiences and by challenging my own way thinking. Also you used the term "self discovery mission" I don't feel there is any specific time period, in which a person is intensely focused on identity, unless they are indeed very insecure about who they are. It is important to note that we never stop learning a little bit here and there about ourselves as we continue to live life.

Thank you for your feedback
 
ASL. What is lost is irreplaceable.Will it ever,can it ever replace the spoken/understood word consistently? No. Hearing Aid technology is the only way to go.
 
Bottesini said:
A hoh person who decides to try to be deaf at their first time away from home usually has some emotional problems that prevented them from getting along previously.

Trying to be deaf isn't going to make it all better. They need to work on the underlying problem.

What Frisky said is right . Plenty of people are happy to socialize with hoh people and they don't need to feel rejected.

But the idea of trying to take on a new culture as a solution to your problems isn't going to work.
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Huge, huge difference between HOH and Deaf. Double the difference between hearing and deaf. Mixed signals , misheard words. Expectations are are different,on both sides.
 
I agree with Bott and Frisky. I am hoh with speech issues and it's true that technically I may have a more "mild" peripheral hearing level than most on this forum. But I'm a very visual person due to learning disability and audio processing problems and rely on my vision to pretty much navigate in the world. Though I'm not fluent, I do prefer to sign rather than speak and would not want to be "cured" of anything related to the situations I currently have as I know it. Mostly if I interacting with most people and they call me "hearing impaired" or say that I -am- learning disabled, I will correct. Neither of those is what I am.

I've never encountered anything but open and patience in the Deaf community here.
 
An interesting exercise: does the multiple comments here in Alldeaf.com "suggest" some persons are :deaf Militants-voice off sub group of the deaf/Deaf/DEAF? How real are "they" in the world we all exist in? Are "they" a real "copy" of "local groups"?

Another discussion in Sociology-culture.
 
In my sense. I don't really see a distinction, just an understanding of culture, and the acceptance of ones self. I have both hearing and Deaf friends. I prefer to sign over talking because J have had complaints that my voice is too loud lol.

My Deaf friends accept me for me. I don't see why there should be labels. My friends see me as me, with an awesome language! My sister she and I have a language that my parents do not know!

I love who I am, and I think thats what some try to get others to understand. If you don't accept who you are, then just who are you?

Also, those HoH individuals who go the Deaf for help do tend to find people who understand. I should know, I am a late Deafened girl lol! All my Deaf friends see me as Deaf, and I accept myself as just that. Well, thats just what I think lol! Thought I would give my two cents fo whatever its worth.

Have a happy day!
 
Really interesting thread. I had some of the same questions. My brother just told me that he had his hearing checked recently and has lost over 50% of his hearing in both ears. Would that make him HOH? :hmm:
 
Shara said:
I have run across these type of comments as well, SOME Deaf people may view HoH people in this light, but to bring up another way to look at this. I was Born Hard of Hearing, once my mom found out, she immediately started to prepare herself to learn, and learn to teach me sign language, but my Doctor "hearing professional" told my mom not to teach me ASL and that it would make my speech lazy, also that I can hear enough, that all I need is speech therapy, in a lot of ways it is not that HoH people choose to hear, it is inflicted on them as well. Thank you for your feedback, i thought it would be interesting to see what are other peoples perspectives were on this issue.
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There you have it... It's due to audism, thinking that hoh people are more hearing then Deaf. I know HOH people who are "almost Deaf"
HOH kids deserve BOTH ASL and spoken language/hearing world....unfortunatly ALL we get is hearing world stuff b/c it seems more "normal"
 
You guys know I have a severe-profound hearing loss already, right?
I'm oral. Don't know much ASL ( but I really, really want to!)
Mom and Dad chose to raise me orally... I can see why though. When they found out I had a hearing loss, I only had a mild hearing loss. So they took a gamble and raised me orally. Well, they gambled wrong. Now I'm kind of adrift. I can't talk to the deaf, and I can't talk to hearing people clearly. Yes, there is a gray area. I hope in the future, HOH can blend in better with the deaf And the hearing.

Just sharing my experiences!
 
deafdyke said:
HOH kids deserve BOTH ASL and spoken language/hearing world....unfortunatly ALL we get is hearing world stuff b/c it seems more "normal"
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Yes!! I had an EVIL speech pathologist when I was 4, who was afraid of deaf people and gold Mom and Dad that I couldn't have a hearing loss because I was "much too bright" to be "deaf and dumb"... Makes my blood boil to think of her!
 
Shara said:
The hearing world views hard of hearing people as though they can hear enough that with speech therapy and and a hearing aid all will be well, and they wont need to "bother" with ASL. And you have some members of the Deaf World who view HOH people as people more closely related to Hearing Culture. It depends on the level of hearing loss. Others think that HoH people can benefit from using ASL too. HoH people don't catch everything even with Hearing Aids, we don't follow everything, but why do we have to be in this invisible grey area, HoH share similiar experiences with Deaf people and we don't fit in neatly with Hearing World. My question is this why not make it just as important for HoH people to learn/know sign language so they don't have to miss-out either. They can have the best of being in both worlds using speech if preferred and ASL? Instead of being seen by Deaf world as "Your not Deaf enough" and being seen by Hearing world as "Oh we can make you hear enough" and force you to fit in....
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No one tried to force me to fit in. I couldn't bother with ASL because I don't care for the militant attitude of many deaf and it's a turn off to learn the language. Being Sicilian American, I already have a place I belong and I don't care to have a deaf language forced on to me to have "the best of both worlds." How does anyone know what's best for me over my parents? Now that I'm old enough to decide what I want, I still prefer my Sicilian heritage over ASL. I've no real interest in it and no one, the schools, the doctors, the audiologists, my parents, forced me to do anything. They also didn't pretend I could hear more than I did or try to change me. Just because someone hears doesn't mean they're "evil" or that they have a hidden adgenda.

Laura
 
Lau2046 said:
No one tried to force me to fit in. I couldn't bother with ASL because I don't care for the militant attitude of many deaf and it's a turn off to learn the language. Being Sicilian American, I already have a place I belong and I don't care to have a deaf language forced on to me to have "the best of both worlds."
Laura
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I'm curious, why is it a turn-off to learn ASL?

It's actually a nice thing to be multi-lingual. I know English, ASL, and Swedish. (I'm Scandanvian.) I don't go around saying I'm Swedish-American and then bash ASL. :confused:
 
Lau2046 said:
No one tried to force me to fit in. I couldn't bother with ASL because I don't care for the militant attitude of many deaf and it's a turn off to learn the language. Being Sicilian American, I already have a place I belong and I don't care to have a deaf language forced on to me to have "the best of both worlds." How does anyone know what's best for me over my parents? Now that I'm old enough to decide what I want, I still prefer my Sicilian heritage over ASL. I've no real interest in it and no one, the schools, the doctors, the audiologists, my parents, forced me to do anything. They also didn't pretend I could hear more than I did or try to change me. Just because someone hears doesn't mean they're "evil" or that they have a hidden adgenda.

Laura
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:hmm: And here I thought it was all a one way street with you just coming here to bash deaf people at every opportunity...
 
Lau2046 said:
No one tried to force me to fit in. I couldn't bother with ASL because I don't care for the militant attitude of many deaf and it's a turn off to learn the language. Being Sicilian American, I already have a place I belong and I don't care to have a deaf language forced on to me to have "the best of both worlds." How does anyone know what's best for me over my parents? Now that I'm old enough to decide what I want, I still prefer my Sicilian heritage over ASL. I've no real interest in it and no one, the schools, the doctors, the audiologists, my parents, forced me to do anything. They also didn't pretend I could hear more than I did or try to change me. Just because someone hears doesn't mean they're "evil" or that they have a hidden adgenda.

Laura
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I am on the complete opposite of you. I thank my lucky stars everyday for learning ASL and getting involved with the Deaf community. I wish I had the opportunity as a kid so that way I could have the best of both worlds.
 
AlleyCat said:
I'm curious, why is it a turn-off to learn ASL?

It's actually a nice thing to be multi-lingual. I know English, ASL, and Swedish. (I'm Scandanvian.) I don't go around saying I'm Swedish-American and then bash ASL. :confused:
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Seems like there is some inner hatred for Deaf people and ASL. There will always be people like that.

Yea, it is nice to know several languages. :)
 
VacationGuy234 said:
It's not a bad thing to learn ASL or anything that helps improve communication. Everyone should constantly be learning.

However, learning ASL does not solve the, "miss-out" problem. The hearing world doesn't use ASL so we would still be missing out. It's not a solution.



The reason Deaf people don't like hard of hearing people isn't because of language, it's because we choose to hear(we don't have the same beliefs). Just because you learn ASL does not make you accepted, it just makes it easier to communicate.

You, and every other deaf person, have to make your own individual choice. Most of us don't see a need to choose one group over another. We are just fine with being friends of both groups. We know we don't fit into either, but that is something we grow to accept over time.

We are not helpless, we can adapt to anything either group throws at us. Perhaps some day we will be more organized, but as of today we don't see the need. And, in the future, there may not even be a need.
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I disagree with this. I did not chose to hear , my parents did. There was no way in HELL my dad was going to have one of HIS kids talking with their hands and looks like an idiot. This is what my dad thought about ASL . If I had tried to learn ASL growing up I would had been slapped in my face . And I never really had any reason to use ASL now as I do not know any hoh or deaf people. You're forgetting some people where not allowed to learn ASL as a child .
 
There are many, many deaf ferrets that chose to be ignorant about learning ASL. Same with deaf cats. Yet, they turn out just fine. What is all this hassle about?
 
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