Deaf DU'ers Unite!

[Hawkeye-X]

Check in!

Hawkeye-X from CO!

[sniffa]

1. sniffa from ma

aLthough i do have partiaL hearing in my right ear, i'd be Lost without Lip reading. :hi:

[TX-RAT]

7. About the same

Lost all hearing in left ear, and about 1/2 in right, plus all eyesight in left eye. All in one day.
Y'all gonna have to talk louder.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

2. You'll have to speak up, I don't think they heard you.

[sniffa]

3. i'm feeLing LoneLy here

[LDS Jock]

4. Not Deaf, but used to work relay

and wanted to join in on this. Working relay was a real eye opener for me. The intolerance and lack of respect by many of the hearing customers was appalling. They would treat the Deaf customers as if they were dumb, since they couldn't speak and make insulting comments to me or to a friend next to them, not knowing I was typing back everything I heard... even what they didn't want me to. The Deaf community has my respect for putting up with this crap daily.

[Hawkeye-X]

5. And I'm using Video Relay service

:eyes:

They are much better than conventional Relay service.

[slinkerwink]

6. slinkerwink from MA!

[sniffa]

8. hi

i'm not aLone in my state. :P

are you compLeteLy deaf?

[slinkerwink]

16. profoundly deaf with a cochlear implant

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. How about hearing impaired? Are we welcome here too? :^)

[Hawkeye-X]

11. of course.

:)

[eyesroll]

10. A kick from a sympathetic friend

:hi:

I'm not deaf but I have what an audiologist termed "disordered" hearing. I have trouble hearing over background noises (including mundane things like the air conditioner or boots on hard floors) -- unless I'm looking at you, or you're talking right into my ear, I just hear a big glob of sound.

Audiologist said it's something in my brain, not my ears -- my testable hearing (in a quiet booth, with headphones) is fine. It's just once the sound comes in, I don't process it right. (He compared it to colorblindness.)

He also told me there's not a lot I can do about it (except find another audiologist, I bet); I just need to find ways around it. "Could you repeat that?" is my coping strategy, and it's worked well so far.

Edit: Clarity.

[Guaranteed]

13. I think I have that too.

I'm constantly having people repeat themselves, especially if I'm concentrating on something else when they start talking to me. My brain just does not compute.

It's like some kind of tunnel vision thing.

[LiberalTechie1337]

12. Not actually deaf

but I have below average hearing levels. On rare occasions I sometimes drop to near-deaf

[Bertha Venation]

14. Mrs. V. has 30% hearing in one ear, and I know a little ASL....

"fortunate" doesn't come close to describing how I feel.

I like this thread. I'm glad you posted it.

[FizzFuzz]

15. WOW! Way cool! I'm a Sign Language Interpreter

:bounce:
In Rochester, NY, the largest Deaf population in the US. Been doing this gig for over 20 years. I'm fluent in ASL, Mr Fuzz is Deaf, most of my friends are Deaf. (Weirdly, I'm not a Child of Deaf Adults. I just got into it 25 years ago and that, as they say, was all she wrote.)

Was just talking to a Deaf friend of mine this AM, who is also rabidly anti-chimp, about suggesting to the local theatre thats playing F9-11 about getting some shows interpreted.

PS. What am I doing online right now in the middle of a workday? I CAN'T FIND MY KEYS!!! AGGHHHH.