To Wear Hearing Aids Or Not To?

deafdyke said:
Nope. Who told you that? There are MANY ways to be Deaf, and you can be Deaf without having attended a Deaf School or grown up in a Deaf family. Those do give you extra points, but they're not the whole story!
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I've had a quite few Deaf people tell me that... a little weird that they discrinimate against their own people. So what are other ways to be capital D deaf?
 
Hollsbee1 said:
I feel the same way a lot of the time. I usually only wear mine to important events. My kids speak up for me so I don't have to wear them at home. Plus our dogs are great at barking when someone comes or when the kids get to rough with each other. :)
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I rely heavily on my dog in the mornings! The minute she goes trotting off and barking at the same time, I go and check the door :)
 
camtheham said:
I've had a quite few Deaf people tell me that... a little weird that they discrinimate against their own people. So what are other ways to be capital D deaf?
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Maybe you misunderstood. The Prestigious ones in Deaf culture are the ones who are DODA (from a Deaf family) or who attended a School for the Deaf. But you CAN be Deaf by signing (either as a primary or a secondary language). There are loads of dhh kids who were mainstreamed who identify as Deaf. Remember only a very tiny percentage of Deaf people are from Deaf families or even went to a Deaf School. It's no longer 1965. Most Deaf folks are products of the mainstream.
 
deafdyke said:
Nope. Who told you that? There are MANY ways to be Deaf, and you can be Deaf without having attended a Deaf School or grown up in a Deaf family. Those do give you extra points, but they're not the whole story!
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That's garbage. So is what camtheham was told. It is entirely up to the deaf person to feel like they are Deaf or just deaf. Deaf is being a part of deaf culture, signing, having deaf friends, and so on. Having to go to a Deaf school or grow up in a Deaf family does NOT earn you extra points. It might make you have some extra Deaf friends because you have something in common, but nobody says "oh? You went to a deaf school, or oh? You have a deaf family? You got extra points!" Nobody says that.
 
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p.s. I was raised in the mainstreamed, learned sign language as a baby, had speech therapy, and so on. However, I soooo much identify myself as Deaf based on my beliefs, my friends, my hangouts, and so on. I did not attend a deaf school or be part of a deaf family.
 
AlleyCat said:
but nobody says "oh? You went to a deaf school, or oh? You have a deaf family? You got extra points!" Nobody says that.
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In my experience, unfortunately some Deaf do ask that, but not the "xtra point" part. They may not outright say it, but you do get that sense of them gleaming/gloating that they have the perfect score for being Deafer than others.
 
Frisky Feline said:
I wear it once in a while whenever I feel like.. I dislike otican. so I have two more years to go, then will go back to phonak. I hope I ll wear it often.
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Interesting, what don't you like about Oticon HA's? Had you always worn Phonak HA's before these?
 
Cappy said:
In my experience, unfortunately some Deaf do ask that, but not the "xtra point" part. They may not outright say it, but you do get that sense of them gleaming/gloating that they have the perfect score for being Deafer than others.
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Maybe so. It has never felt like a competition here but maybe that's because there's thousands (or at least hundreds) of Deaf/deaf here in Minneapolis/St. Paul so there's all walks of life here.
 
Hmmm, I thought being Deaf is basically how you identify yourself, whether you consider yourself part of Deaf culture compared to seeing yourself as a person who has a disability.

For those who are from a Deaf family, this is just more automatically to them as they were born and raised in this culture.
 
AlleyCat said:
Maybe so. It has never felt like a competition
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That is true with me here also. There always seems to be small number (single digits) that do have that Deaf, superior than you complex. But not often.
 
Cappy said:
In my experience, unfortunately some Deaf do ask that, but not the "xtra point" part. They may not outright say it, but you do get that sense of them gleaming/gloating that they have the perfect score for being Deafer than others.
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That's basicly what I meant. Sorry bad wording. It was a figure of speech, There's a hierarchy of things that are valued in the Deaf community, and I thought that sometimes if you're from a Deaf family or you attended Deaf School, it bumped you up a little in the hierarchy. I'm pretty sure I've read about the DODA families being highly valued at the Deaf Schools/ in the Deaf community.
 
AlleyCat said:
Maybe so. It has never felt like a competition here but maybe that's because there's thousands (or at least hundreds) of Deaf/deaf here in Minneapolis/St. Paul so there's all walks of life here.
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That's good! And I mean maybe things have changed due to mainstreaming etc. Which is good. There are many ways to be Deaf, and you shouldn't be thought of better or worse b/c you're DODA,went to a deaf school are HOH or anything else!
 
seb said:
Interesting, what don't you like about Oticon HA's? Had you always worn Phonak HA's before these?
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I was born Deaf. So I tried oction several times and tried phonak several times. It appears to me that I am more comfortable with phonak. Right now I have oction, and hate it. weird.
 
camtheham said:
I mean I do benefit from hearing aids(I have it turned to the max and best hearing aids I can afford), especially one on one situations. However, I still miss a ton in group situations.

Regarding both worlds, I don't fit in either. I can never be Deaf, I can only be deaf. I have Deaf attritubutes but I never attended a deaf school nor grew up in a deaf household(surprisingly a lot of my cousins and uncles who are deaf, speak).
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I have a real hard time hearing in a group of people , 3 people is fine for me , more than that I miss out too much . People don't like to have to repeat their self if they told a funny story or joke and I miss out on this a lot. I am not even worried about being Deaf or deaf , I really think this is being made to be too big a deal and that lead to us against them . Growing up Jewish I have seen enough of that attitude.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I have a real hard time hearing in a group of people , 3 people is fine for me , more than that I miss out too much . People don't like to have to repeat their self if they told a funny story or joke and I miss out on this a lot. I am not even worried about being Deaf or deaf , I really think this is being made to be too big a deal and that lead to us against them . Growing up Jewish I have seen enough of that attitude.
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I also don't see what the big deal is. At the end of the day we all have the problem of our ears not working as well as they should or not at all. I do depend on my HAs morning to night.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I am not even worried about being Deaf or deaf, I really think this is being made to be too big a deal and that lead to us against them. Growing up Jewish I have seen enough of that attitude.
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There is far less of a deal of who is Deaf or who is deaf than you imply, WDYS. It's up to the person how they identify themselves. I don't think anybody was trying to force that onto you.
 
Frisky Feline said:
I was born Deaf. So I tried oction several times and tried phonak several times. It appears to me that I am more comfortable with phonak. Right now I have oction, and hate it. weird.
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Once you get used to one manufacturers sound it becomes hard to change to another. I use Oticon and once tried Phonak and thought they sounded too mechanical. I also have found that Bernafon( a subsidiary of the William Demant Holding Group as is Oticon) and Resound all have a similar sound.
 
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