The Silent Struggles @thedeafstruggle-blog - Tumblr Blog

This video is of me lightly covering my hearing loss and the struggles associated with it.

Despite technological advancements that allow deaf job seekers to communicate more easily with potential employers, applicants say they still face stigma that they can't do the job.

The unemployment rate among the deaf is staggering. Fewer than 40 percent of those with a hearing disability work full time, according to the Yang-Tan Institute at Cornell University's analysis of 2016 American Community Survey data. Despite improvements in technology and accommodations that are making it easier for deaf people to work and communicate, deaf job hunters say employers still don't believe they can do the work. When Koller told hiring managers she was deaf and preferred to interview in person so that she could lip-read, she says she was often ghosted or told that a phone screening was mandatory.

This painting is about Dorothy Miles, ASL poet, from England. In 1974, she had commented that Deaf Art has three categories. Here are her comments: "In the first category, we can not distinguish that artworks are made by Deafs, one would think they were made by hearing, or whatever. It may be, for example, paints flowers, landscapes, portraits or other ... In the second category, we don't really distinguish directly that they were made by the deaf, but we can see that there is a link with the experiences of the deaf. I already had the experience to feel the same as the artist wants to express in his work. In the third category, we can easily see that this is Deaf Art. Because we can see their experience as well as various symbols which clearly show that the artist is deaf: for example, hands, which are obviously Sign Language. Or ears, which are linked to deafness and hearing. The symbol of the mouth is related to the oralism time. And various symbols that make us easily see that these artworks are created by deaf people."

Dorothy passed away in 1993.

(https://www.nancyrourke.com/dorothymiles.htm)

Question 2

You are a coffee shop barista. You have moved from Delaware to St. Augustine, Florida. It is your first week working at the new coffee shop and you come across several employees who use something they call signed language to talk to their Deaf and hard of hearing customers. You have never come into contact with any people with deafness and decide to do some research.

Would you:

A.) Ask a coworker how they learned and perhaps ask them for lessons.

B.) Decide you aren't getting paid enough to learn a new language that most people don’t know and continue to rely on coworkers to interpret for you.

C.) Get out into the community with the help of coworkers and immerse yourself in what you find is a new culture you have never learned about.

To verify the home opportunities to the motor development offered to infants with and without risk indicators for hearing loss (RIHL).Observational tr…

This study directly links markers seen in infants with hearing loss and a lack of early language stimulation, which is necessary for comprehensive language acquisition. The conclusion states, “it was possible to verify that home of infants with risk indicators for hearing loss have statistically fewer affordances when compared to the homes of infants without the indicators. The results alert us to the need for orientation to the infant's responsible/caretakers regarding the importance of a favorable environment with stimulation of the infant motor development.” This issue has great future ramifications. If deaf or hard of hearing babies are not exposed to full and fluent language they might not be able to hit all the milestones for language acquisition and may even have problems with reading comprehension. This reading comprehension issue comes from a lack of print awareness that comes when exposed to fluent language.

Deaf patients say video interpretation services, often used in emergency rooms, may not work well, keeping them from participating fully in their care.

“Jebian, who is deaf, said a nurse struggled to set up the [video phone] equipment as he anxiously wondered whether he was suffering a heart attack.

‘I was panicked,’ said Jebian, 46, recalling that July 2012 day. ‘I didn’t know if I had to have surgery. Everything was going past me. I didn’t know what was happening, when it was happening.’

With the minutes ticking by and staff still unable to operate the video interpreting service, the hospital turned to another option. For the next six hours or so, while undergoing tests and hooked up to IVs in both arms, Jebian said he wrote notes back and forth to doctors with his limited English — he communicates primarily through ASL. He was lying down on a hospital bed with his arms out, so he couldn’t see what he was scribbling.

‘I wished I had four arms at the time,’ he said. ‘They were saying, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t find your vein,’ while I’m trying to write them notes, trying to guide them.’

A STAT review of hospital inspection reports and court records found dozens of instances around the country when deaf patients said they were not provided adequate interpreter services.” This disgusting treatment is seen time and time again. With our healthcare system already failing so many, it’s despicable to see people in such vulnerable spaces being dealt with little to no thought. Communication is a right, just as much as health care and education. Not having access to such basic things is proof that the system we currently live in is obviously not working.

#patients #deafstruggle

This painting by Nancy Rourke showcases something many people are likely to have never seen-- a group of friends signing to one another. Unless one has gone to deaf events or studied ASL, most hearing people do not put themselves in circumstances where they become a minority being a hearing person. However, if more hearing people were to put themselves in these positions, there would be much more desire to learn ASL and befriend people who are deaf.

“Deaf History: The hearing educators marginalized deaf education for over a hundred years. In the field of Deaf Education, ASL was seen as a problem, not a resource, because it was thought that ASL impedes the learning of speech and ASL has no written form, thus it is not useful. Thus, in deaf education, ASL was dismissed in favor of a speech-based or oral environment (Lane, Hoffmeister & Bahan, 1996). According to Mask of Benevolence by Lane (1999), the International Congress on Education of the Deaf of 1880 in Italy decided that educating deaf students in the oral approach was the best classroom instruction, and they banned sign language from deaf education curriculum. It became widespread across the world, especially America. Many deaf educators were ousted from their professional employment or demoted to dorm supervisors, custodians, and cooks. Deaf children were taught in oral philosophy, which means that the instruction is based on oral methods and sign language is not allowed (Lane, Hoffmeister & Bahan, 1996).”

(https://www.academia.edu/10109162/Deaf_A_Cultural_and_Linguistic_Perspective)

Daniel Harris was shot dead after a trooper tried pulling him over for speeding

Daniel Harris was a young man who was Deaf. As he was driving home one day he was speeding and a police officer tried to pull him over. Yet Daniel didn’t pull over right away. In fact, Daniel didn’t hear the siren at all and for some reason, didn’t see the cop at all. He went home with the officer in tow and as he was getting out of his car the cop shot him. Police shootings are quite high among marginalized folk and it is no different within the Deaf community. Police stations have been doing more work on better training police to deal with Deaf and other people with disabilities, but this does not bring back the dead.

#deafstruggle

To assist medical and hearing-science professionals in supporting parents of deaf children, we have identified common questions that parents may have …

“Deaf children, in general, are academically at risk, where the lack of a solid language foundation may be the major culprit. Many deaf children are raised in a zero-tolerance-to-alternatives oral environment, that is, strictly orally, but the auditory information they receive through cochlear implants (CIs) or hearing aids may not assure language access. Early exposure to language is critical, starting at birth. Human beings are hardwired to acquire language – any natural language, including sign languages and spoken languages– but the window of opportunity on full first language acquisition is drastically reduced after the first few years of life. If a child becomes deaf after this sensitive period for first language acquisition, that child may already have enough of a foundation in the spoken language to thrive or, at the least, manage linguistically in a strictly oral environment. But the congenitally deaf child is our focus here, the child who needs frequent and regular exposure to an accessible language while the brain is still plastic enough to acquire language. If that child is left without accessible language during the sensitive period, that child may experience linguistic deprivation, which leads to serious language delays and cognitive deficits as well as other health and psycho-social problems. This means lack of language access is a medical issue that must be addressed and, importantly, addressed without the baggage of the heated debate concerning sign versus speech – a debate that has been cast as cultural. The relevant issue is, instead, language versus lack of language. Because of the high degree of variation in the benefit of CI, the speech-only pathway to language acquisition carries inherent, serious risks. No one should wait to see how well a child accesses spoken language with a CI, risking such serious harm, especially since often that realization doesn't happen until after the child falls far behind in schoolwork. No parent of a prelingually deaf child should rely on CI alone for first language acquisition. Instead, parents and professionals should immediately expose the child to a sign language. Offering the deaf child a sign language alongside a spoken language – the most inclusive option – amounts to offering the best opportunity for a firm language base that can support cognitive health, academic success, and personal satisfaction.”

With cochlear implants, I can hear but am deaf all the same.

“I regard myself as a deaf person, and I am proud to be among those who live with deafness, yet I often feel rejected by some of these same people. My use of cochlear implants and lack of reliance on American Sign Language (I use it but am not fluent — I primarily speak) are treated like a betrayal by many in the Deaf — capital-D — community. In the view of many who embrace Deaf culture, a movement that began in the 1970s, those who are integrated into the hearing world through technology, such as hearing aids or cochlear implants, myself included, are regarded as “not Deaf enough” to be a part of the community.”

Question 1

A woman who is Deaf gets into a car accident and goes unconscious. She is rushed to the hospital and as she begins to regain consciousness the nurses try talking to her. The woman slowly realizes she is going to have to somehow let the nurse know she is deaf; however, the woman feels dizzy and slowly is realizing she may have broken bones as the pain starts setting in.

What would you do if you were in the position of the woman who was deaf?

A.) I would point to my ears and shake my head to let them know I could hear.

B.) I would ask for a pen and paper by mimicking writing with a pen and write down I am deaf.

C.) Do nothing and look confused and hope they understand.

D.) Try to speak even though the woman has never been trained to speak and therefore doesn’t know how things sound.

Nancy Rourke 2011

This piece is one of my favorites I found from the De’VIA movement, though it was created much later than most. The image shows 3 rows of 6-7 people with cobalt blue X’s over their faces. Written small over the X’s are capitalized letters written seemingly at random. In the second row, on the right, second to last, is a woman with no X. She is the focal point of this painting with a red circle drawn around her. She has her hands up in the chest region as if she is signing. Her face is expressive with one eyebrow higher up. I feel this painting speaks to the daily challenges of being socially isolated. Being the only person in a room who speaks a language can be extremely draining both emotionally and psychologically.

The Black deaf community can be described as a group of individuals who live in a hearing and color-conscious society (Anderson, 1972). They are continually striving to overcome the communication problems faced in everyday living while still having to contend with racist attitudes that govern society. They are a group of individuals that appear to be immersed in both the Black and deaf cultures. This study explores all of these issues and presents empirical data that permits a clearer sociolinguistic perspective than has heretofore been possible. Data relating to the issue of identity consist of the results of a survey conducted with sixty Black deaf individuals. For the issue of communication patterns, data consist of videotapes made of the conversational interaction of seven dyads controlled for race, audiological status, and signing skills. Overall, as an essential part of the deaf community, the Black deaf community faces the challenges of securing better education, more promising employment opportunities, and social advancements similar to those already acquired by members of the Black community at large. Both in drawing attention to these issues and in describing some sociolinguistic features of Black deaf discourse, the chapter discusses further research on the Black deaf community. It is hoped that future studies will increase the understanding of this particular minority group and other minorities within the deaf community at large.

The issues of people who are disabled and BIPOC are greatly nuanced. As a white middle-class, cis-passing person I recognize my privilege in having doctors (ENTs and Audiologists alike) take me seriously and having the ability to afford surgeries and hearing aids on top of my medical bills for constantly being sick as a child. The issues people who are marginalized face already include job and food insecurity, but when combined with deafness, these issues become even greater. This study hashes out some of the finer details in regards to these issues.

In the United States, two-thirds of hearing-impaired people do not complete high school. In this talk at TEDxStanford, Rhodes Scholar Rachel Kolb -- who was ...

A very empowering talk about what it is like for this woman, Rachel Kolb, to be Deaf. It’s easy to forget just how much we really are capable of. For people who are deaf and hard of hearing, they are constantly told what they can and cannot do. These low standards from others can very obviously have great impacts on how one might view themselves. As someone with hearing loss, I relate to this issue. I was mainstreamed and felt as though I was unintelligent for not being able to stay at the same pace as my peers. It has only been until recently that this has begun to change and I have begun to heal. We are most definitely always more capable than we think.

“The Soukup family—three generations of deaf men—have watched changes and roadblocks unfold. When a big storm destroyed Ben Soukup Sr.’s farm in 1960, he went to banks all over town to get a loan to rebuild. Every one of them denied his application for one simple reason: He was deaf.

His son never forgot the experience of watching his dad lose his farm and ended up dedicating his life to helping deaf individuals communicate with the world around them, a legacy carried on by his own son, Chris, nearly half a century later. Ben Soukup Jr. founded the nonprofit Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD), one of a number of nonprofits in the U.S.dedicated to empowering deaf and HOH individuals, and Chris has continued the work as the organization’s CEO.

Years after Ben Soukup Sr. lost his farm, the deaf and hard of hearing community would go on to experience some of the greatest advancements in the United States and globally. However, a great number of challenges persist.” (https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-challenges-still-exist-for-the-deaf-community-4153447)

I was unable to find the original artist; however, I do know this piece was part of a movement of Deaf art known as the De’VIA. This stands for Deaf View Image Art. The movement started before a large art festival at Gallaudet University in 1989.

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