Edit: Interesting watching Hearing people's fragility constantly downvote this thread. It's actually quite a sad sight, confirming my notions about the concept of "disability".

Lately, I have been starting to notice behavioral patterns in the Hearing community that started to make me wonder about the real meaning of "Disability". So, I looked it up!

" dis·a·bil·i·ty[ˌdisəˈbilədē]NOUN

a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities."

I have the benefit of being able to look at it from the Deaf side of things and I have noticed that Hearing people are so busy creating technologies that revolves around sound.

Let me ask two questions for those who can hear:

1. How many sounds do you hear right now in the room you're in? Most people would say 3-5 sounds.

2. How many things do you see right now in the room you're in? Most people would say 20+ things.

So this begs the question, why are Deaf people "disabled" and Hearing people are not?

Just because Deaf people's body does not have a functional sense that Hearing people expects us to have, doesn't mean we're disabled. How can we be disabled over something we never had or even need? The true disability is when we DO have something and decide not to use it such as having the ability to see but takes it for granted via not using it to it's fullest capacity, thus harming themselves in the process.

Here is why I think Hearing people are disabled:

1. They have a tendency to have an overreliance on audio technology at the expense of visual technology. (Example: Amazon's Alexa)

2. Hearing people frequently dies from car accidents or work accidents because they're too busy hearing things such as phone calls or music. If they didn't have the ability to hear, they might still be alive today.

3. They have a tendency to trap themselves within a set way of thinking that impacts their abilities to see and interact with the world. (Example: Freaks out when sounds aren't working at the movie theater)

4. They have a tendency to try and solve visual things with sounds. (Example: A Deaf person going to an eye doctor only to have the eye doctor start talking to the Deaf person, instructing the Deaf person on what to do while measuring the Deaf person's eyesight, all the while forgetting that it's A. a visual place for visual medical solutions, B. That the Deaf person is 100% visual, and C. That the Doctor should have been visually aware that their medical equipment is preventing the Deaf person from accessing their interpreter because the Doctor thinks talking with their voice box is an omnipotent solution aka. the only way to communicate as a human being.)

5. Which leads to Hearing people's tendencies to stay inside a box and reinforce the linear aspects of sounds, imposing unrealistic expectations in order to maintain their audio-status quo. Meanwhile, Deaf people are outside the box, solving things, creating new visual technologies, being generally flexible and adaptable due to having to survive Hearing people's limitations as that is where the majority of the resources we need are at.

I could list many more including that Hearing people are the ones creating war, famine, political dramas, many preventable accidents (which they tend to first blame Deaf people such as forklift accidents), and many more.

But the whole thing led me to realizing that the more Deaf people tries to conform ourselves into the Hearing people's boxes, the more likely we will shape ourselves into the "disability" that the Hearing people think we are. By doing that, we're helping Hearing people to justify all their centuries of discrimination and harm against Deaf people, that we are indeed disabled and Hearing people are not.

The only solution is to be ourselves, to be our full Deaf identity, and to go around in the community talking to all Hearing people with full ASL.

I've done it and I've gotten some really surprisingly positive reactions. Now Hearing people are waving more at me and my wife, smiling and making attempts to talk in ASL instead of using their voices.

For 2023, stop conforming to Hearing people's expectations and definitions.

Be Deaf. Be you!

Hii so Ive been learning sign language for quite some time now. Ive met a lot of deaf/mute people and decided I needed to be able to talk to them. I genuinely think a year or a short class at least of sign language should be mandatory in schools because I couldn't imagine basically speaking a "unknown" language in my own country.

All that being said, I hate talking. I'm an extremely quiet and reclusive person and someone even just answering a yes or no question takes a lot of effort because it feels like it takes so much energy. Is it wrong for me to use sign language instead of speaking even though I'm fully capable of speech? I have friends, parents, and my boyfriend who all understand sign language so if they ask a direct question and they expect a more than two word answer I could literally just sign it... But I'm afraid that can be taken as offensive? Idk. Lmk what you think

Edit:

1. I never said anything about teaching ASL? Idk why people are telling me not to do that as if I said I was. All I said was that I'm fluent in it?

2. Some of y'all are being really ugly over me just asking a simple question. I was just asking to make sure because idk how people felt about me using something I don't "need" that was specifically designed to help people who are in need.

3. Thank you to everyone else for your answers, I'll make sure to tell new people and that I just prefer signing so then there are no miscommunications. Thank you guys for helping out 🖤🖤

Does anyone else see the similarities between ASD and dDeaf people? As a hard of hearing autistic person, here are only a few I came up with. can you think of others?

Direct

Responds to the question asked (eg How are you?)

Strong identities

Different communication methods

Seen as though something is lacking

I've seen many deaf people (deaf in as can't hear) that have the ability to talk, and choose not to, especially in like television that have deaf characters. And i've seen many deaf people talk while signing as well. To anyone who is deaf hearing wise and doesn't speak, or just knows, why not? Sorry if this is offensive, just generally curious.

Our interest in this film is not religious; our interest is the fact that this is a deaf-produced, all-ASL film with open captions that is going to be in regular theaters. Although for only 2 days, June 20 and June 23. (https://www.jesusdeaffilm.com/). Think about it; for several years now, we have routinely had deaf characters in mainstream movies in theaters. So the only natural next step is deaf movies in theaters. If you have ever been to a deaf film festival, you know that for some time now, deaf people have been producing their own films. Sooner or later some of those films are going to find their way into regular theaters. We cannot remember any all-ASL film ever being shown in regular theaters. If there have been, please educate us.

And, since we are open caption advocates, you may be wondering what this has to do with open captions. For starters, this film has open captions to help the ASL-challenged. That means hearing people and people with hearing loss who don't know sign language, can go to see it, too. So it is another tool for increasing acceptance of open captions in theaters. While it appears most of the theaters offering the limited screenings of the 'Jesus' film are the ones that already have regular open caption screenings, some of them do not offer regular open caption screenings at all. Now, those theaters will be exposed to open captions albeit for a very limited time. Good sales for this film (and we are seeing that already) may help convince those theaters to give regular open captions a chance.

Last but not least, suggest the most appropriate tag for this post - deaf event? sign language? daily life? Which of the three is most appropriate for this information? For now, we have selected "deaf event" since a post flair is mandatory but it may not be the most appropriate one.

Edit: Adding screenshot from one theater. Amazing how many seats have already sold. Screenshot is the Harkins Christown (one of the theaters with regular open captions) in Phoenix, Arizona.

Edit 2: It is not about inclusion, it is about exposure. Exposing theaters that do not currently offer regular open caption screenings, to the fact that there is a potential customer base they are missing.

Im a male possibly about to date a female who is deaf. Any really good tips for doing so? Im in my 30's if that's helpful.

my sister is 21 years old now. She has been deaf and mute since birth and now she doesn’t communicate in any way. Until around 16 years of age, she used to do her basic work on her own and also used to communicate a little through gestures. But after the age of 16, a sudden big change came in her. She became very depressed-like. She would sit in one place for hours, wouldn’t do anything on her own, wouldn’t bathe, sometimes she wouldn’t bathe for 10–12 days. She didn’t interact with anyone, just kept sitting. At that time I don’t remember whether she was eating properly or not because I was small.

In the next 2 years her condition worsened further. She completely stopped period hygiene, didn’t maintain personal hygiene either, and became dependent on others for everything. Then slowly aggression started in her.

We first took her to a child specialist. They gave medicines, but there wasn’t much improvement. Later they referred us to a psychiatrist. In 2024–2025 the psychiatrist evaluated her and diagnosed schizophrenia and started Olanzapine, Risperidone and Zapiz.

In the beginning Olanzapine helped a lot for about 1 year. Later when we told the doctor that she remains very lethargic, doesn’t move at all, then the doctor added Stalopam (Escitalopram). By mistake that medicine continued for 2–3 months. After that, her aggression slowly started increasing.

From December to July the aggression increased a lot. Now she tries to throw things at people, tries to hit people, repeatedly takes off her clothes and even exposes her private parts in public. She eats, drinks water, goes to the toilet or bathes only when mummy repeatedly commands her. If no command is given, she does nothing on her own, sometimes she even urinates on the floor.

In the last few days another new symptom has started — her eyes keep rolling upwards repeatedly and along with that her head also moves. These episodes keep repeating for hours, but during this she remains conscious and notices things around her.

One more thing we have noticed is that about 6–7 hours after taking medicine, her aggression and clothes-removing behavior increases a lot.

Former deaf(IKEA PHILADELPHIA PA 19148) employers have been victims of discrimination against my personal was oppressed and very hurts me. Because of deaf, hard of hearing, or disabilities. The supervisor and some of the employees does very cruel to at ME the time. The supervisor won't let me have forklift operating training.IKEA Didn't provide (ASL) an interpreter for meetings (Discuss) or training Not nice to disabilities. PLEASE DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM Ikea products are sucks!

So I’m taking intro to American Sign Language at my college and it is taught by someone who is actually deaf and use a sign language as their main form of communication. On Monday, we had an interpreter interpreting our professor sign language. However, apparently that was only a luxury we got on day one seeing as from this point on we are expected to just pick up sign language through immersion and there will no longer be an interpreter. I feel like this is kind of unreasonable, seeing as this is an intro class and this wouldn’t be something that would happen with other languages. But am I the unreasonable one here? Should I just sit in the classroom watching someone speak language I don’t know how to understand fully and try to figure it out?

Hi everyone! When I was five years old, I had severe bloody diarrhea, spent a month in the hospital, and was given very strong medications. When I left the hospital, I was deaf. At the time, I had around 70% hearing loss, and it progressed over the years.

First, the birds went silent. Then the sounds of the night disappeared too, the crickets and all those little sounds I used to hear without thinking about them.

Over time, I learned to lip-read. But as I got older, bullying from other kids pushed me into books, chess, science, and art. My interests became deeper and deeper, and connecting with people became difficult for me in another way too. Not only because of hearing, but intellectually as well. Anyway, that’s not really what this post is about.

I can hear with hearing aids, but other hearing-aid users will probably understand what I mean when I say it is never quite the same as typical hearing. At the same time, I’ve never really felt that I fully belonged in Deaf culture either. Some Deaf people treated me as if I were hearing because I used hearing aids. I was even pressured by a group to take my hearing aids off, but I felt extremely uncomfortable without them.

For years, I wished there were simply a place where I could exist as I am, without having to choose a side.

I once considered cochlear implants, but I became hesitant because of the surgery itself, the MRI-related issues caused by the implanted magnet, including the possibility of needing the magnet surgically removed for certain MRI scans, and because I’ve heard that having a cochlear implant could potentially affect eligibility for some future hearing-restoration treatments if they ever become available.

So lately, I’ve been wondering whether my last real hope might be the new generation of hearing aids with AI-assisted or advanced sound processing.

Has anyone with severe or profound hearing loss tried them? Did they make a genuinely noticeable difference in speech understanding, especially in noisy environments? Do voices and environmental sounds feel more natural?

And perhaps the question I care about most: Have any of you ever felt that modern hearing aids brought you significantly closer to the hearing experience of people with typical hearing?

I would really love to hear your experiences, especially from people whose hearing loss is similar to mine.

If you've ever wanted to share with friends, family, or employers what living with Auditory Processing Disorder is like, this is hands-down the best example. It was intended to demonstrate what English sounds like to learners, but it captures the APD experience absolutely perfectly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY&t=1s

(cross-posting to r/hardofhearing)

i had that question in my mind after watching sound of metal and reading some ableist thread in r/unpopularopinion

I feel like so many people act like it's an either/or situation when it comes to children and ASL and CI.

I’m just imagining a deaf couple lying in bed and wanting to argue but they can’t because they can’t see what the other is signing. Would they HAVE to turn the lights on to argue? Someone please explain how this works.

Hi friends,

I really appreciate everyone on here for their support. I have a roommate that has been talking really loud and has a problem following rules. He’s been really rude and ignores me when I tell him to lower his volume politely. I have even written notes to him explaining that I would prefer if he didn’t speak loudly, but it’s just ignore, ignore, ignore. How do I handle this without overreacting?

So I’m from r/AutisticAdults. I’m interested in disability politics and disability solidarity. I know fingerspelling in signed English (American English) and a few basic ASL phrases (which is to say I’m still learning the language, I am not a visual learner, so it’s hard). If I master ASL, I want to learn French Sign Language. Do people here prefer person first or identity first language? Deaf interpreters, what do you prefer? A lot of Autistics prefer Autistic Person over Person with Autism.

Before Sunday's game, in a heartwarming, beautiful exchange on the field that has gone viral, 8-year-old Mark and Indianapolis Colts cheerleader Morgan showed the world that the language of understanding one another is universal.

If you are deaf can you still quitely sneak up on people if you can't hear yourself making noise? 🤔. Just wondering , no hate.