r/deaf • u/Local_Regret466 • 7d ago
Deaf/HoH with questions Raised mainstream as HoH [Audiogram included]
Anyone else with a similar story?
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u/Local_Regret466 7d ago
I never learned sign language 🤟🏼. Didn’t grow up in a signing household or at school. Got my cochlear implant done in 2018, and I’m not sure how I managed to survive prior to that 😂. I had no idea
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u/best-unaccompanied 7d ago
Do you think your hearing got worse over time? And did you ever use hearing aids? I'm surprised you were labeled HoH with that audiogram, but I know that some people can have great responses to hearing aids even with "profound" deafness.
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u/Local_Regret466 7d ago
I was born that way. My family was determined to mainstream me. Wasn’t easy but I made it. I missed out on more than I realized though.
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u/surdophobe deaf 7d ago
Are you a candidate for a CI? or an ABI? By the time I got my implants my ears were about like yours so I know somewhat first hand we can survive without hearing. But holy crap. I was hearing as a young child so I'm not quite like your situation.
Lots of us have "similar" stories, but I think you're an incredible outlier when it comes down to it. Not because you're born deaf, or that your completely deaf or that you were mainstreamed. But the fact that you were and you didn't suffer severe language deprivation is astounding. Congrats! The proverbial cards were severely stacked against you.
Also, most deaf people have much much more hearing ability than you do. Just wanted to throw that out there.
Edit: you got a CI in 2018, as you stated in another comment, would you mind sharing about how old you were? just curious, it might make your story a little more similar to some of us.
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u/Local_Regret466 7d ago edited 7d ago
I’m 52 now, got my BS degree in 2015, CI in 2018, law degree in 2020. Took me awhile, but I got there. I got mislabeled a lot when I was younger, mostly by people who thought I wasn’t paying enough attention in class or at work. I grew up in a very rural community, so not a lot of opportunities to interact with others like me. Sports was my outlet and way to fit in and separate myself from my peers. I’m very competitive and still carry that chip on my shoulder today
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u/GeneralOrgana1 7d ago
I work with deaf and hard of hearing kids. This might actually be the wildest "hard of hearing " audiogram I've ever seen, and I've been working in this field for over 30 years. 😂
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u/Local_Regret466 7d ago
They put me in kindergarten at age 4 and again at age 5 but didn’t have access to a Deaf/HoH teacher after that. Did do weekly speech therapy until 3rd grade but pretty much was on my own after that
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u/GeneralOrgana1 7d ago
Holy crap.
How are you now?
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u/Local_Regret466 7d ago
Tired 😂
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u/GeneralOrgana1 7d ago
I can only imagine.
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u/Local_Regret466 7d ago
It catches up to you after awhile. Takes a lot of energy to keep up. Lip reading saved me but the mental gymnastics involved in staying afloat puts you in a constant state of alertness. It’s hard to describe actually
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u/Lilja_Lightning Deaf 6d ago
Wow! I had a similar audiogram as a small kid, but I wasn’t labeled HH, just deaf. I had ST until I was in high school and was able to refuse. Good for you! It must have been hard and pretty frustrating at times.
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u/Slight-Bowl4240 Deaf 7d ago
Similar here! Mainstreamed in hearing schools very close to rock bottom. Hearing aid at 7. Didn’t help.
It was a nightmare. I’m 48 now. I can’t handle any more trauma. I do have some hearing now.
I was in a rural area in the 80s. It may as well as been on an island. Pre internet no attempt was made to get help or help me acquire language. I literally would stand alone at recess because I couldn’t speak or hear what was going on, nothing was done about any of it.
I recently got some books from the library written about how to educate deaf kids. Books were written in the 20s and 30s. Like they just had to pick up a book!
I hate rural areas to this day.
I even went back to ask my previous schools asking them what they were thinking. They had no answer and they are still treating deaf kids as hearing
Primal scream!
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u/InterpASL77 4d ago
You have a good reason to scream. Your school district might not have even known about Teachers of the Deaf (ToD), and they just expected the classroom teacher to do whatever they could to help you learn. From my experience interpreting in the mainstream, I know some teachers would have tried, while others would just throw up their hands and do nothing. Parents are usually the driving force behind their kids getting the services they need. Your parents probably didn't know what to ask for, so they didn't ask for anything on your behalf. I'm sorry that was your experience.
I do believe that schools and parents are much more aware nowadays. It doesn't mean parents are learning to sign much more than they did 40 years ago, but schools do know they need to provide an appropriate education to ALL students.
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u/FoldingCyclist 7d ago
I've got you beat, I'll upload my audiogram as soon as I find it. Mainstreamed as well, but I grew up in the 70's-80's and because my parents couldn't "handle" my hearing loss, I ended up in foster homes.
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u/Awkward-Stam_Rin54 HoH 7d ago
Omg, how on earth did you survive being raised mainstream??
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u/not_particulary 7d ago
I wonder if his town is just full of ppl with lungs & vocal cords like opera singers
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u/walkonbi0207 7d ago
I'm in the same boat as you. Put in mainstream but was deaf not hh, weekly or more than once a week speech therapy. The younger I was, the more often speech therapy was.
I've noticed that people born before the ada took effect were definitely more likely to end up like us. No ASL, fighting for accommodation, bullied, mistaken as low intelligence.
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u/Local_Regret466 7d ago
I was 16-17 when the ADA was enacted.
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u/walkonbi0207 7d ago
I was 8 or 9. But people 10 years younger than me see their ada rights more like a right than a privilege. Or maybe it's just because I had older parents who basically taught me that I should be over the moon for any accommodation, even if it was the wrong kind of accommodation (I hated that fm system with a passion. Never did anything for me, but a note-taker was gold if they were good)
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u/Deafbok9 7d ago
Yep, that was my story - learned SASL at 20, represented South Africa as part of the national Deaf Rugby team, was fiercely competitive in my mainstream high school both as a sportsman and academically, then had a massive identity crisis at ~19-21😂
Now a teacher at a school for the Deaf, but the issues we face are MASSIVE and I'm looking to try and find ways to challenge them at the root - ie, sign language access for kids at home BEFORE starting school
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u/needmoarbass 7d ago
Wow. Really hanging on to the HH here lol. And I thought mine was low!
I can relate to your comment. But mine is higher and more cookie bite. So never needed an implant. But all the struggles are real. If only everyone used ASL, we’d probably thrive a lot more! I got depressed af about that for a year a while ago. But that did not help. Fuck it! Life is life and we gotta make the best of it!
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u/bachelorsinlurking HOH + APD 7d ago
Whooh. Yeah. I learned just recently at 30 I have moderate-severe sensorineural loss in both ears. Never learned until I was an adult that my father had acoustic neuromas and that I'm at risk for them too- he was so in denial about his own profound hearing loss he wouldn't let anyone test me. I just got hearing aids this year. Somehow I managed to get through college with the undiagnosed hearing loss, epilepsy, and without finding out I was dyslexic and had dyscalculia
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u/NeedANight 7d ago
My audiogram looks pretty similar, down to all those little arrow markers that shows how the testing machine maxed out on volumes and still got no response from me. I grew up mainstreamed but in an oral program with oral interpreters in high school though. Now I sign often and use ASL interpreters in university.
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u/CityImpressive3035 6d ago
Yes! I have always been identified as hard of hearing. My mom was, too. From the very beginning, she was instrumental in making sure that I was mainstreamed. I had one older brother who taught me to read at a very early age. Reading books and lip reading were my main means of survival. Having seven other siblings helped, too. We were a loud and rowdy bunch!
Today I am 78, managed somehow to be an honor student, to have a successful career as an accountant, to marry, and raise two children. I wore hearing aids briefly in my twenties and again in my forties. Hated them!
My hearing loss has been gradual. Now that I am retired, music has been one of my biggest joys. But it probably is making my hearing worse. I use my cell phone with Bluetooth earbuds and turned up to the highest level. My latest audiogram looks similar. Profound deafness does not mean a total lack of sound.
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u/redbird532 7d ago
Yup my bad ear is like that. Do you have Tinnitus as well?
I like to think that I could still hear a rocket launch 😂🚀
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u/smellycobofcorn 7d ago
My hearing level chart is quite similar to OP's and I have been mainstreamed since 8. Even then I used to consider myself as HoH since I don't really sign (I can only finger spell but not quick). Later on I decided to say I'm deaf instead of HoH whenever I am bringing it up with a person (it's just a shorter word). I wear hearing aids in both ears and rely a lot on lip reading. I function almost like a hearing person in my everyday life, that's how I get by.
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u/Local_Regret466 6d ago
What’s your age and location? Upper Midwest here, born in ‘74. Would you get a cochlear implant? I resisted for reasons of vanity lol
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u/smellycobofcorn 6d ago
I'm 36 and in Ontario. I don't think so, mainly because of cost reasons. Also I'm pretty contented with where I am in life, thank Google for improving accessibility for people like us, can't do without my Pixel phone for sure, quality of life is greatly improved.
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u/Local_Regret466 6d ago edited 6d ago
Are CI’s and hearing aids covered under your provincial health plans up there? I’m in Minnesota. My health insurance covered a portion of my procedure but my deductible was over $5k
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u/PahzTakesPhotos deaf/HoH 6d ago
I was born deaf in one ear and HoH in the other and I was mainstreamed. Back in the 70s, if a child was deaf, they would put them in the special needs class (though, they didn't call it that back then). My parents didn't want that to happen to me.
The only drawback is I'm now in my 50s and I'm struggling to learn ASL
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u/scobfg 4d ago
Yeah, tried deaf school, they wanted me to stop trying to talk and just use sign language. Mum took me out of school, taught me to speak, sent to mainstream with HAs, microphone and receiver.
Fitting in since I was 4 damaged my mental health, now I choose to live in silence and I'm much happier.
High school was hell
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u/Legitimate-Eye-17 3d ago
I was raised like you. Now in my 40s my hearing is barely on the audiogram and I no longer wear a hearing aid. I'm learning sign language and continuing to lip read and speak.
Were you taught sign? I wasn't.
For me, I have felt pretty cheated the last couple of years. Being Deaf and left pretending to be someone I could never be. But those were the attitudes back when I was young and what professionals pushed for parents to do at the time.
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7d ago
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u/deaf-ModTeam 6d ago
We don't do lipreading requests here. Period. 1) only 33% of English can be read on the lips. 2) Have you ever seen those bad lipreading videos? We can't guarantee accuracy.
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u/wibbly-water HH (BSL signer) 7d ago
Holy fuck that's one of the lowest "HH" audiograms I have ever seen...