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I've never understood why some deaf people feel so strongly about it. The fact that deafness is part of their identity doesn't mean they ought to go around tel
by big_chungus 7y ago
I've never understood why some deaf people feel so strongly about it. The fact that deafness is part of their identity doesn't mean they ought to go around telling others they shouldn't try to hear, especially not so vehemently. I'd consider it roughly equivalent to the really obnoxious fire-and-brimstone evangelicals that yell that you're going to hell if you don't convert. Why do people care so much what others do with their lives?
- knicholes 7y agoBecause if you're able to hear and they're not able to hear, it means they have a disability. They don't want to consider themselves disabled. I was a transcriptionist for a college when they held a deaf conference, and it was definitely this way. They were angry that they had to mark a disability to receive government assistance, because they felt as though they had no disabilities.
- scarby2 7y agoI've never understood this isn't lacking an ability that 95% of the population have basically part of the very definition of disability. I lack fine motor control, I'm unable to write legibly with a pen, i have issues with spacial perception and regularly fall over pretty much anything, i struggle with any task that requires co-ordination (if you threw a ball at me i'd have maybe a 30% chance of catching it). I also don't have binocular vision (anything thats supposed to be 3d looks the same as the picture to me). Luckily in the age of technology i this has not impaired me significantly but i couldn't claim to not have any kind of disability...
- big_chungus 7y agoI guess that makes sense, but it strikes me as awfully selfish to try to pressure someone into maintaining a poorer quality of life to fulfill one's own sense of identity. It doesn't say good things about those people, and I would have though they of all people would want the fewest people to suffer what they do.
- knicholes 7y agoBecause I was so appalled, I asked one of the students to explain it. They said that I was disabled because I can't work in a noisy factory comfortably while they could.
- big_chungus 7y agoI applaud that part; seeing the upside is admirable and not everyone can do that. What I still don't get is when they get mad when others try to hear again. It just doesn't make sense. My perspective could certainly be off here, but it sounds like someone being mad his neighbor has a fancier car and yelling at him about it.
- vertex-four 7y agoThe problem is that you get hearing people go "well, there's a treatment, why should we change what we're doing to accept deaf people?" When there's a (potentially invasive/experience-altering) treatment which makes people more able to fit into existing society, that society will often pressure people into receiving that treatment. This is, obviously, rather upsetting, and I imagine a lot of deaf people would rather the treatment didn't exist.
- gugagore 7y agoYour perspective suggests you think deaf people are jealous of hearing people. I think it's different. Deaf people have created a bunch of other solutions that don't involve cochlear implants, and a lot of that has been ignored by society at large. (For example, how do you raise a deaf child.) Also the controversy around cochlear implants is mostly about giving CIs to young humans. It's not that much about "hearing again". (In fact I don't think CIs are as effective later in life.)
- gugagore 7y agoAnd were you able to see one of the other meanings behind "disability", and why deaf people want to avoid that stigma?
- gugagore 7y agoI don't trust that you have enough experience with deaf people to make your claim. The word disability has a lot of meanings and a lot of uses. Only one of them is about getting access to accommodations. Deaf people absolutely label themselves disabled for the purposes of getting access to accommodations, like you suggest. I think you misunderstood that they're upset about all the other things that are associated with disability. The idea that deafness is "lesser" (e.g. hearing loss) simply does not resonate with most culturally deaf people.
- matt-attack 7y agoWell they literally have lesser (or more correctly, “fewer”) functioning senses. Like 4 instead of 5 is clearly lesser. I really hate when emotions get in the way of objective definitions.
- gugagore 7y agoWhy is it more important to have an objective definition of deafness than it is to understand deaf people's definitions of deafness? The most important difference between deaf people and hearing people, for deaf people, isn't "5-4=1". I really hate it when objectiveness gets in the way of compassion and respect for human beings and life generally. Also, of course deaf people agree they cannot hear and have one fewer functioning sense. In some signed languages, the sign for deafness is an open hand, but with one of the fingers flexed (4 of 5). And I will argue in fact it's hearing people who get "emotional" about the idea that deaf people don't care about not hearing. By the way, "5-4=1" is not the most important difference for hearing people either. Hearing people will talk about hearing birds songs and stuff.
- knicholes 7y agoI worked with them for nine years, so shrug. I'm not sure how much experience you require for me to have to make my claim.