Pros and Cons of Being Deaf and HOH

H

HOH2000

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Of course, for many of us, we love being deaf, Deaf, HOH. There are a lot of pros to hearing loss but some cons too. So let's identify and share them! :deaf:

For me, I'm moderately-to-severely HOH in my left ear and profoundly deaf in my right. I use a hearing aid for my left ear and I don't rely on my other ear at all.

Pros:

Being a part of the deaf community AND the hearing world

Being influenced to learn ASL

Not being distracted easily

Can turn off my hearing aid when I purposely don't want to hear anything

Being an advocate for the deaf and HOH

Relating to deaf and HOH people

Not worrying about losing my hearing as I get older and having to adjust to wearing a hearing aid

Going to deaf camps and events

Being a student at an amazing deaf and HOH program at my regular public school

Having a different insight on life and the world

Not too sensitive to noises hearing people complain about

Automatic bonds and friendships with deaf and HOH people. With hearing people, everybody is the same and they take their hearing for granted. With we deaf and HOH folks, we're instantly bonded.

Cons:

Audism
Hearing aid technical problems
Constantly having to explain my hearing loss
Difficult social situations. At parties, dances, the movies, restaurants, etc.
Lack of videos without closed captions.

So 12 pros and 5 cons. There's definitely more, I'm sure. What do you guys think? :cool2:

Me? I love being HOH. :deaf:
 
Living in both worlds is kind of a con for me. People around me see me as hearing because I can speak well, yet I feel more at home when using my hands and not my voice.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using AllDeaf App mobile app
 
HOH Pro: I'm good listening and composing music. Con: read lyrics n can't sing with voice.
 
HoH pro, having good work ethics, since I miss much of what is said among my colleagues, I am good at reading available information more carefully than others and paying attention to what is going on in order not to miss things.

Pro, sometimes I can follow a lecture/presentation more easily than hearing because of assistive devices or interpretation.

Pro, more attention and enjoyment from visual details. (Both when it comes to art or the world in general, but also being a safer driver since we do use the mirrors to keep track of surrounding traffic.

HoH con, not being able to choose friends freely. It is difficult to become friends with people who speak too softly or have a really difficult dialect, or with people who have a negative attitude about deafness. Of course hearing people are also limited in their friend choices, but I feel I have a limited choice and cannot just befriend anyone.

Con, being excluded at meals or coffee breaks. I haven't found a good solution to this. It depends on the situation, but there definitely are occasions when I have no idea what people are talking about.
 
DeafNerdMommy said:
Living in both worlds is kind of a con for me. People around me see me as hearing because I can speak well, yet I feel more at home when using my hands and not my voice.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using AllDeaf App mobile app
Click to expand...

That's understandable. Still a pro for me, though. I'm glad people don't think of me as hearing since I can speak verbally pretty well. Then again I do have a deaf accent so yeah. :lol:
 
Sorry for the triple post, but...

Another con is speech therapy and cochlear implants. I'm not against them. It's just that I'm exhausted of speech therapy and I do not like the cochlear implant. Some people still get onto me about speech and listening and cochlear implants. Annoying. :(

But I wouldn't change my hearing loss for anything. :)
 
Going from hearing to deaf I far rather be hearing I know what I lost
Rebuttal to nearly every one of the pro's apart from the first I agree with...To late to discuss but will tomorrow
 
caz said:
Going from hearing to deaf I far rather be hearing I know what I lost
Rebuttal to nearly every one of the pro's apart from the first I agree with...To late to discuss but will tomorrow
Click to expand...

Well, it must suck losing your hearing all of a sudden. I guess my pros and cons are for people who were born deaf/HOH or grew up being deaf/HOH. I'm sorry about you going from hearing to deaf. But you know it's something you have to live with. Maybe you're meant to be deaf, who knows. :hmm:
 
I'm deaf but function as hoh hearing becuase I sign and talk same time.with hearing with deaf full signing voice off I have some kind of accent sound like islanders somewhere but never been .to any country so I usually blame it on my hearing loss .pro able to turn hearing aid off for kids my sons crazy music playing and my young daughter screaming while she plays .can't hear well on the phone but still try vp too with voice over on .cons people who don't sign or use tackle signing for deaf blind people who don't like to simplify wording . I'm not slow but it helps and don't like when people talk to my like I'm dumb becuase I need repeating .
 
caz said:
Going from hearing to deaf I far rather be hearing I know what I lost
Rebuttal to nearly every one of the pro's apart from the first I agree with...To late to discuss but will tomorrow
Click to expand...

I was born HOH and would rather had been born hearing. Being HOH stink!
 
To the best of my knowledge becoming "hard of hearing/Deaf/deaf/DEAF" is not a personal choice but a condition that "evolves/occurs".

How one deals with the condition is a personal choice-Hearing aids/Cochlear Implant-if suitable/ASL et al.

Excluding babies born deaf where their parents have to make the choice on how to deal with the matter-Cochlear Implant or ASL et al.
 
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