Thursday, December 27
I Was Born Deaf
On Christmas Eve there was a visitor at our church who was a Deaf gentleman in a wheelchair. A lady at our church introduced me to him and Rebecca looked at me and started signing "why". I knew what was next, I shifted my body between Rebecca and the man so that he couldn't see what was being said next. She said, "Why is he in a wheelchair - what happened?" and then she tried to move so that she could ask him directly without giving me a chance to answer - typical Rebecca. I interrupted her and told her that was rude, she said "why - what happened?". I said how would you feel if the first thing that he asked you was "Why are you Deaf?" - she said "Fine - I was born Deaf". She missed the point. Eventually, she gave up and didn't ask him.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Most wheelchair users welcome questions from children and don't find them rude at all. Much better to be open about it then to act like it's something to be embarassed by.
That seems to be true. Between a Deaf person and a wheelchair rider, questions seem to be less taboo.
There will be a time later on when you can discuss the difference between too-personal and appropriate questions; for young children it's healthy to convey the attitude that disability is part of life.
Don't be concerned.
It is the nature of any deaf child to ask direct questions whereas the hearing child usually asked fuzzy or unclear questions or even worse giving looks.
The Deaf is notorious for ONE thing - up front direct questions and frank responses.
"Between a Deaf person and a wheelchair rider, questions seem to be less taboo.", I agree! I am a member of www.deafromance.com (a popular online deaf community ), majority member of this site are deaf or HOH people (so do I). I was often asked similar question,"Are you deaf?","why?". "I was born Deaf.",I always answer. It really doesn't matter, I think.
In addition, deafromance.com is really a good site, it's my favorite deaf dating site. I met many kind friends there.
Post a Comment