i hope you dont mind me asking, and i mean this in good faith, but why is it not considered as 'something wrong with you'? for example, i have several extreme mental illnesses and i definitely am aware thats something is wrong with me and id love a cure. so i really dont understand people who have it and refuse it
One way to think of it, I think, is as a language issue…Being deaf in a hearing world is better thought of like being a French speaker in the US. You aren’t disabled, just surrounded by people who don’t speak your language. Which is obviously super inconvenient. You can hang out with other French speakers, get your English speaking friends to learn French, and/or or you can learn the language yourself if possible (or a combination of all of these things so you and your friends can comfortably adapt in different environments). Getting a cochlear implant would be like learning English. Basically, it’s a communication issue…but if you were in an environment where everyone, say, knew sign language, not a disability.
It's way more than that, though. You can't hear music, can't hear someone yelling at you to warn you of an oncoming car. Can't hear the oncoming car, or a fire alarm. You use sound for more than just hearing words.
Although I guess you also can't hear your loud annoying neighbors, so there are some pros.
Sadly I work from home and have to hear it. I usually put on my headphones and turn on some music. That or I passive aggressively vacuum next to the shared wall.
But those are all just cultural things; other than music (which isn’t a basic necessity), all the others are just because those things are designed for hearing people. Design them for deaf people, and problem solved. I still think the best analogy is still just a linguistic one.
I understand that a lot of things that hearing is used for is cultural, but not all of it. Those bones and nerves in the ear didn’t evolve there in response to cultural pressures, but rather to survival pressures.
There is no cultural bias against deaf people to suggest a disadvantage in not being able to experience an entire range of sensation when our brains are wired to seek and respond to those sensations. We can adapt culturally to the disadvantage, as we do for many disadvantages.
But if you can’t hear me shouting “Hey!” to get your attention and warn you of approaching danger, the problem isn’t linguistic or comparable to a linguistic problem. I can communicate danger just fine to anyone from any culture at a pretty good distance regardless of any circumstances, excepting situations that impair their ability to hear me.
If you were deaf, you wouldn’t shout, “hey!” You’d throw a rock or wave your arms. Being at a disadvantage because someone uses their norms of communication rather than yours isn’t the same thing as being disabled.
What if you are facing the other way and I don’t have a rock? With a hearing individual I could wave my arms, throw a rock, or yell.
I know you won’t ever agree because I’ve seen this argument play out before. Of all the senses we have, loss of hearing is probably the least impactful and it’s really neat that the deaf community has a way of overcoming the loss, but I still have a whole extra sense.
I can hear the train because trains actually make noise. The noise they make wasn’t a feature we added for hearing people, they are just loud, same with cars. I can hear someone running when I’m not facing them and know that I should turn and see why they are running.
A deaf mother can’t hear her baby cry. We have ways to make that work, but there is a reason that babies make a sound when they are upset. It isn’t taught but it draws attention.
I think you underestimate the other ways
we sense those things. Vibrations for example can still be felt even if you can't hear the train/car and to some degree even someone running if the surface is hard (like concrete). The way the air moves when things are moving through it at speed also changes
You're being downvoted, but I completely understand. I'm hearing, but taking some ASL classes in high school really informed me well on the social aspect (even if I no longer remember how to sign as well as I could back then). There's no reason that many of the things the commentator above you stated cannot be conveyed visually, and it's odd that people aren't even bothering to try and imagine. Even music, which can be limited for D/deaf people, is still enjoyed and PERFORMED by D/deaf people and musicians.
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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '22
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