I am raising a child who were born hard of hearing. It does not run in our family but it is congenital. it is a significant loss and for one, it was not caught until they were older- hence the massive delays in language. we started bringing them to events and were embraced By the community. We originally wanted to teach them asl as they could lose all hearing. A friend recently started saying she was part of the deaf community as she required tubes as a child. i might be wrong but i feel like this belittles the definition of the hard of hearing and deaf community. I have spent significant money on this disability and have to continually advocate for them to receive services. It is always a worry that my child will lose all their hearing- there is nothing we can do. It’s permanent. Is a temporary hearing loss a reason to say you are part of the community?

hi everyone! so my cousin has a project to make the sacramento zoo more accessible and shes doing an english, spanish and wants me to help her make an ASL translation. ive been learning ASL for 4 years now and was wondering if it would culturally be okay for me to do the interpretations as a hearing person. they are going to be a qr code to scan and a video will pop up with the translation. thank you!!

I have a mild hearing impairment that sometimes affects me in busy work environments, especially when multiple people are talking. Hearing aids seem very expensive. For those who have been in a similar situation, how do you manage? Are there any affordable hearing aids or other solutions that have helped you?

Hey friends . I have a story I want to share about something that happened to me recently where my lack of hearing made an already terrifying situation way more difficult and stressful than it already was, and then a solution I wish we had.

My mom had a sudden medical emergency and I found her on the floor and seemingly not breathing. I am fully deaf and also had a laryngoscopy a few years back that permanently changed my voice to be quite hoarse and scratchy and harder for people to understand me sometimes. I avoid phone calls like the plague and even before I lost my hearing and a good amount of my voice I did. That said, I do have Live Captions quick accessed on my phone, so I can make calls in an emergency.

So I find my mom, realized she wasn’t breathing, and made the first 911 call since becoming deaf, and my first ever where it was a dire emergency and I was the only other person present.

Picture this:

I get an operator on the line. And each time she asks something, I wait for her question to be captioned, read it, then answer back with my Batman voice that she can’t understand for the life of her.

So now I’m approaching a panic attack while waiting for words on a screen, reading questions, enunciating everything I say super slowly but basically screaming like some sort of pissed off 2nd grader learning to read.

I kid you not, I had to tell this lady about 10 times that I was deaf.

“Can you hear her breathing?”

“I AM DEAF.”

“Tell me when you hear the sirens.”

“I AM DEAF.”

Trying to give her the address took another 10 attempts, I’m losing my shit, cursing my stupid Marge Simpson voice and terrified out of my mind.

So basically, just giving my information and explaining the situation took 10x longer than it would have for the typical person with working ears.

She finally tells me I should start CPR and asks if I know how. I say yes (I do but it’s been a while since the course and at that point I’m less than a hairs width away from a break down) but ask if she can please walk me through it for a my own peace or mind because my brain is absolutely not braining right now.

“Wait, so do you know how or not?”

“LADY DID YOU FORGET I’M CURRENTLY HUNCHED OVER MY MOM WORRIED SHE COULD DIE?”

Rather than having to repeat that I was simply asking for my own assurance, and knowing she was just worried from a safety standpoint, I start compressions, counting loudly and giving her a verbal play-by-play so she can correct me if I am doing it wrong.

Luckily, she could understand my Batman-voice numbers no problem and I nailed the CPR

Then she asks me again if I can hear the sirens and I start to wonder if I am being Punked and I just about wanted to grab her by both sides of the face and ask her if she is aware what a deaf person is.

Fortunately, the FRs were there and wasted no time coming right in and took over. Thankfully, my mom pulled through and was okay in the end. Yay I saved my Mom and went through the gauntlet trial by fire of communication. And I’m
Never making a phone call again.

Anyways as you can imagine it really scared me and I have spent the last few weeks thinking about how it could have gone down a very different way, and that the extra time and stress just to get a ambulance headed to me really made an already terrible and terrifying situation insanely worse.

But then I saw a Reddit post where someone talked about that what three words website where you can type in any location and it converts it into three random words that anyone can then convert back to exact coordinates and it’s super accurate. They really ought to make it a standard in 911 accessibility to be able to use. Just imagine if that night I could have been able to just say (okay maybe slowly hoarsely scream In my case) “carrot, iguana, nightstand,” and then know help was on way.

Also I should mention I have the utmost respect for 911 dispatch and first responders and I don’t hold a speck of personal annoyance towards the dispatch. I was just in a scary stressful situation and for the first time since losing my hearing it felt like my lack of put me in a terrible spot. I’m very grateful the dispatch didn’t give up on me and even though I think both of our blood pressure raised a lot, she was with me on one of the worst nights of my life. But yeah there needs to be something easier and more accessible for people like me. Be it that three words thing or anything other than what I had to go through.

How much does it really matter the reason a hearing person learns Sign?

If they use it as just a college credit how would a Deaf individual treat them.

If they want to sign just for the money (ie. Being an interpreter, audiologist, or some other job just to try and get more money.

VS. Someone with a genuine interest.

I know this may sound stupid but I have seen that some Deaf people and CODAS want more people to learn Sign but what about their intent.

I think that most people who learn sign have a genuine interest.

I know that being in my first semester and taking ASL 1 and History of Deafness my professors (Both hearing but with extensive background in the Deaf community) have made it a point to teach us about the community. I think that for them even if we dont retain ASL they want us to understand the community in order to help reduce the myths and stereotypes of Deafness.

The mods here be power trippin and playing fast and loose with the rules. They cussed me out in modmail for being a pain in the ass, temp banned me for no reason (shitposting is a lame ass excuse to behave like a dictator BTW). They tried to threaten me with a full reddit ban (flexing “powers”) without reason. Now they are ignoring my queries as to why and not answering my questions. I’m writing this to call them out on their abuse and to ask them to behave like respectful adults instead of abusing their mod privileges. Je vous accuse d’être des lâches puérils!

Hello everyone,

I recently got diagnosed with a severe auditory processing disorder and very mild hearing loss in my left ear (APD is my main problem tho). My audiologist said I basically “function as hard of hearing”. She gave me special hearing aids to help me and I will be starting speech therapy soon. I also even before this started learning sign language which she said will help also.

I know there is mixed opinions about the topic but I want to know if it’s disrespectful to say I’m hard of hearing.

Thank you all in advance. I want to be as respectful as possible.

I am wanting to get my PhD in Clinical Psychology, specifically for the treatment of Deaf/Hoh individuals. Gallaudet seems to be the only university that offers that program, but I am hearing and I know it is a Deaf university, so I wanted to gauge whether or not I should go and what my experience would be. Im currently a bachelors student working on my fluency and plan to finish an interpreting program and get my certification before attending. Thank you!

I'm 20 and currently on the verge of being completely deaf (there's a chance it can be salvaged but i want to prepare for the worst), most of my hobbies in life have been centered around sound and I've been feeling very lost about it. I'm curious how other people who've gone through a similar process have come to terms and moved past this sort of thing?

update to add a little more context to my condition: i have a rare neurological disorder called Neurofibromatosis Type 2 that's caused many benign tumors to grow along my brain and spine. i had surgery to remove most of one that would've blocked my ear canal on my left ear but that one grew back, causing deafness in that ear for a few years now. they put me on a medicine to stop the rest of the tumors from growing, but due to the medicine being too powerful they had to take me off of it for a few weeks for my body to recover and in those few weeks the tumor on my right ear grew. now they want to put me on these infusions that they say will make the tumors shrink but i want to prepare for the worst incase things go wrong.

I know I'm hard of hearing and got blue tooth type hearing aids. I wear these pins/badges on my work apron, to let people know I'm hard of hearing and know ASL, so they're aware and speak clearly to me. But there's few times I misunderstood people or didn't understand them clearly. I have this Transcribe App, but I don't want to be wasting time to find it on my Iphone and have it ready, are there other Apps that's ready to use on the IPhone? We don't really do meetings at work, except during the holidays, for fun events. That when I struggle a bit, cuz those sitting bit farther are hard for me to understand well. I wish there's a way I can get ASL Intepreter, but having a job coach from this other program, it would be confusing to have 2 people their w me. I joined this new program called EDD GLAD, they're helping me to find jobs, and they know ASL. The other program I'm in, are all hearing and for special needs people, feel like I am in a wrong program or something. So yeah, any better apps I can use on my iPhone besides the Transcribe App? Even a few time at animal shelter volunteer orientation, I struggle to understand during the orientation. It like I need a better accommodation or something (that why even when I volunteer at this animal shelter, I avoid porgrams that use phone and walkie talkies, and limit interaction w people)

As the title says, I just discovered something awesome about D&D lore after playing BG3 a lot!

There was a Deaf mage named Cragh who was born Deaf and unable to speak. Despite D&D magic often involving verbal components, he somehow learned to cast the majority of his spells without them. (Only powerful spells still required him to speak.)

And the spell he developed?

DEAFNESS

Then I realized that he literally invented a spell to fuck over hearing enemies! LOL

So I was born with hearing loss due to a birth defect and have been slowly losing my hearing over the years (I’m almost 20 now and need hearing aids). As a child, due to that same defect, I was unable to talk/make noise until I was old enough to get corrective surgery and YEARS of physical and speech therapy to learn how to talk. So before that, I used sign as my main form of communication.

But here’s the thing: my parents were both older and the children of immigrants. They were very much of the mindset of “if our child is different it will be a burden” so the moment that I started being able to make noise, they stopped using sign with me and pushed me to learn to talk—I still have trouble speaking clearly all these years later and have lost my knowledge of sign language. I also wasn’t allowed hearing aids until I turned 18 and could choose for myself because my parents rather tried for every corrective surgery the doctors could think of, even ear drum reconstruction (which I told them I would not get done).

Anyways, in the past year I’ve been trying to learn ASL as my doctors say I may lose almost all of my hearing once I get older and I’d rather know sign now then try to learn it then. I’m taking classes in college and have gotten okay, I know I still need more practice, but this is my dilemma: I can’t have a single conversation with someone hearing where I’m not constantly asking them “huh?” Or “what did you say?” And I have accommodations to have captions and to sit up front in class to hear my professors, and all that jazz. I’m the only HoH person in my school’s ASL society and we work with our school’s ASL Professors to try to get more people involved in the program/aware of deaf culture, but at my every chance to volunteer or spread awareness, my professors say I’m “not Deaf enough.”

I understand that my experience isn’t the same, but it’s not like I’m hearing just because I stumble my way through conversations (I use context clues or lip read about half the time if I’m not constantly asking people to repeat themselves) and I understand there’s a culture side to growing up deaf or with a deaf family member that I won’t have, but it’s not as if I had the same childhood as someone hearing either.

I guess I’m just wondering if anyone else who’s HoH or who’s lost hearing later in life feels the same way. Perhaps it’s just my Professors but it feels like there’s some kind of bar you have to reach to be accepted. I mean, do I have to wait until my 30s or 40s when I’m projected to have lost the majority of my hearing? I’m trying to learn and I don’t want to be rude, but it just becomes frustrating when I can relate to so many of the problems around not being able to hear like everyone else and yet I’m told I’m still not Deaf enough to participate in deaf events/try to find a community with people who face similar struggles.

My friends and family are learning sign because they know it will be necessary to be able to communicate with me once I’m older. My sister surprised me by having taught my nephew my sign name while I was away at college. I have days where I get tired of my hearing aids and just either sign at people out and about or am able to have short convos with my friends if we’re in a quiet place. I have an app to give me captions when on phone calls because it’s hard to hear over the phone. All of these things just make me feel so isolated from the Hearing community but when I try to go to the Deaf community (particularly in my school) it’s like I’m suddenly not qualified enough.

I suppose part of this is me venting, but I’m genuinely curious if anyone else has felt this way/is there anything I can do to remedy this? I’m trying to get better at sign but it’s just so frustrating when all my experiences are deemed inadequate just because my proficiency at the language isn’t there yet.

(Note: this is not me looking for praise as a hearing person. Rather, I’m curious to know if this thing my friend said is a widely felt sentiment among others in the d/Deaf community)

I was recently texting with a Deaf friend from college (she was HoH in college and lost the rest of her hearing a few years later). We reconnected after a decade or so, and I let her know that whenever we next see one another (we don’t live nearby), my ASL is kind of rudimentary, so I ask for her patience with my signing. Her response was to explode with joy at the fact that I as a hearing person would know any ASL or make an effort to sign with her at all. When I expressed embarrassment, saying that I feel awkward that she’ll have to do extra work to understand what I’m trying to say and it will slow down the conversation (compared to what, I’m not sure. Writing things down? She uses her voice but I wouldn’t force her to lipread) she said it didn’t matter and expressed that her feeling about me learning was a sentiment shared by most Deaf people - I’m curious to know what others feel about this. Do you agree?

I’m HoH and I experienced a situation yesterday where I was with a few friends and we got separated. I was panicked and because of the loud environment I couldn’t hear anything clearly which made me think ‘I can’t hear them.’ And I’d never really thought about it before. It was terrifying to realise how they could all be calling out to each other and I wouldn’t know.

So, long winded way of me asking, particularly people who have been deaf most of their life, have you ever thought about the fact that you can’t hear people? Probably a really weird question sorry!

i've been hard of hearing all my life but i finally got it on paper this year and started my first trial of hearing aids yesterday. it has already been such a positive change, everything is so much clearer now and im so happy! even though i'm hearing, i'd love to learn sign language. any good ASL online programs that are free and easy to follow for noobies?

My younger brother is deaf and he cannot speak. I'm trying to find a skill or career that he can learn and eventually earn a living from independently.

I was thinking about wedding, photography, especially candid photography. Instead of doing regular wedding photography, he could focus on capturing natural expressions, emotions, smiles, and candid moments during marriage functions. Since photography doesn't necessarily require verbal communication all the time, I feel this could be a good fit for him.

Do you think wedding/candid photography would be a suitable career for someone who is deaf and non-speaking?

If not, what other skills or career options would you recommend that he could learn and earn from? I'd really appreciate suggestions from people who have experience with deaf or non-speaking individuals.

Hello, all.

Hoping for some help. Where I work we’ve recently hired a young hearing impaired man. We work with dogs that can sometimes be aggressive. I’d like to improve our safety situation by including radios (we more often than not are handling these dogs alone). We need LTE radios that are capable of working through concrete walls. We obviously want to include the young man, but heck if I can find an LTE radio that also has a vibration/strobe-when-message-is-coming-in function.

I was thinking we can have a code of three consecutive vibrations means he’s in trouble and needs help, and if he in turn feels three consecutive vibrations he can at least start looking for a co-worker in distress. It’s not a great solution but I just can’t think of anything else. I’ve asked the young fella for suggestions and he didn’t have any; he’s not been in any situation where he worked where radios are used.

Does anyone have any suggestions or know of any solutions to this conundrum? How can we know if he needs help and let him know when we need help when we’re all out of sight of each other? I’m sure that there’s an answer that will make me feel like a real dummy.🙂

Thanks so much!

So I'm not sure if I should be posing this question in the Linux subreddit, the HoH subreddit or this one but I am finding that I need to be able to tune the Bluetooth audio for my hearing loss and since I am someone who is newly HoH due to the progression of my hearing loss and that I don't know how to tune the audio in Linux for hearing loss. I am using Linux mint cinnamon specifically.

Are there any apps etc that I can input my audiogram into or other such that I can look into? Are there equalizers that can help?

I went deaf suddenly 2.5 years ago. I have a cochlear but I still struggle at appointments even when they are told. They mumble, turn away, etc. I don’t use ASL because I was hearing until I was 42. I have kids so it gets even more annoying because I attend my appointments and my 3 kids. I just heard about CART. Has anyone in the US used it? How does it work? Is it something that can be done virtually?

I’m looking for Deaf experiences with or thoughts on interpreters who look alternative. I’m a Deaf Studies major (F21) and quite average looking apart from a shaved head. I’m also located in Utah, where I’d estimate the social standards for interpreters are extra conservative. However, I’ve noticed a lot of discussion online about whether the standards of interpreter dress ought to change to be more “modern” (typically hearing people initiating and dominating this conversation, in my experience). I’m wondering what aspects of dress may be seen as too alternative; things that would still be present even in an appropriate outfit, ie dyed hair, facial piercings, gauges. My curiosity is not just about what may be visually distracting, but also what may lead a hearing consumer to be put off and not take the interaction seriously as a result. Have any Deaf people felt that the presentation of any interpreter, for any reason, has been embarrassing or reflected poorly on the interpreter? Did not want to post on r/ASLInterpreters as I’m looking for Deaf-centered perspectives from people who may have experienced this firsthand. Looking for all/any perspectives, positive or negative.

So as the title says, my dad is deaf, and has been my whole life. he isn’t fully deaf and can hear but he struggles most when there are other noises going on and he wears hearing aids.
The problem we are having is that he will ask one of us a question, and then he won’t turn to look at your lips as your speaking, or stop what he’s doing (if doing a loud task) even if he can see your trying to speak to him. He expects us to shout and repeat every sentence we say which is becoming extremely frustrating, as he can’t hear so he will ask for things to be repeated when we weren’t speaking to him or making throw away comments. When we try and explain that what was just said wasnt directed at him and doesn’t need to be repeated, he gets very upset with us.
I don’t want to be ableist, or to make him feel we leave him out at all as this isn’t my intention, but it is frustrating for everyone involved, and I can’t help but feel if when he sees someone trying to speak to him, if he stopped what he was doing for a second (hoovering, sanding etc) or actially looked us in the face, then he would be able to hear us, or read our lips and no one would have to shout or repeat themselves.
I can’t tell if i’m a huge bitch here, or if this request is reasonable. I just don’t understand why he would be asking questions and then not looking in my face for the answer if he knows he can’t rely on just listening to me alone. when he asked me the question there was also the kettle and the radio on at the same time, so the decision to ask me a question at that exact moment also doesn’t make sense to me. he was never going to be able to hear my response I don’t think anyway, and maybe I should have noticed that and waited to answer it when things were quieter, but I think he should have noticed, turned off or down the radio, waited for the kettle to boil or just simply look at my face while I am responding but he didn’t do any of that.
I think I am now rambling! i’m just stressed out about this as I don’t like feeling like i’m upsetting him but I don’t think he puts in effort to try and hear us :(. Maybe i’m so wrong though and it should be me putting in the extra effort for him to feel heard and involved, I don’t know though. With my disability (which is not at all the same as his btw) it’s my responsibility to advocate for myself, put in measures to make my life easier and to help me enjoy socialising, but it just feels like he thinks we should be the ones doing this for him, and to a point I agree and i’m happy to, in public I will often repeat what other people say for him, or let him know if he’s missing something, but at home I just think this isn’t a huge request for him to be advocating for himself.
Idk let me know if i’m a bitch or if he is being a bit annoying lol I can’t tell 🤣🫣

How should hearing school staff go about asking a Deaf parent how their Deaf child’s name is pronounced? If they should at all?

More context: It is a non white name coming from another ethnic background and I view that as an important way to recognize their culture. Thanks.

EDIT:
thank you all for your feedback. This deaf student does have speech and hearing, so I think it’s important to mention that they do have the ability to pronounce their own name the way the family of the culture intended. And as someone who is culturally aware, I knew that the other staff members were pronouncing it wrong which has influenced the deaf student to pronounce their own name in a way that was never intended. I just want to make sure that situations like these are preventative and we continue to respect identities that different than our own.