No matter how well you speak as a Deaf person, you are still not hearing.
I would like to share this story of what happened to me yesterday at the
Early Hearing Detection Intervention conference in Atlanta, GA. http://
ehdiconference.org/
I was an exhibitor working two days and everyone heard me say “Good Morning”
pleasantly when we start the day and also talked to many hearing parents and
teachers at my booth whether they are Deaf or Hearing and I think that many people
in the exhibit hall had already heard me talking for two days.
A man came up to me and asked if I could an interview when he realize that I am a
parent of two Deaf children(adults now) and would pay me for my time. I told him
that I am not that interesting about the money but would love to give any knowledge
I have.
This man took me to this lady that will do the interview. After talking for a few
minutes, I told her that I mostly read lips because I am Deaf, she was shocked that
I was Deaf. She said that she was sorry and declined to do any more interview and
told me that she thought I was hearing. She said that she only wanted to interview
hearing fathers of deaf children. I told her that I have as much experience with deaf
children as any hearing parents.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have said this before and will say it again, no matter
how well any deaf child learns to speak, they will never be hearing…or should I
say “normal”?
I finally became normal when I learned to be bilingual at the age of 19 by being
fluent in American Sign Language because ASL gave me the complete accessibility I
am having now with the 100% communication modality capability.
John F. Egbert