Did you know that 360 million people worldwide (5% of the world population) have disabling hearing loss? What do you know about deafness? We wish to share a great post by Suzie Jones, Deaf Awareness Trainer, published by 121 Captions. Suzie lists some misconceptions about deafness, deafblindness, deaf people and communication that she has come across in her deaf and deafblind awareness classes. Some of them may be obvious, others not. Check out her list (the most common misconceptions are highlighted in bold).
35 misconceptions about deafness and deafblindness.
- All deaf people sign
- A hearing aid makes you hear normally, all deaf people have one – or a cochlear implant (CI)
- The majority of deaf people cannot speak or speak funny
- A cochlear implant restores hearing
- All deaf people lipread
- All deaf people use Interpreters
- There are no deafblind people round here
- Deafblind people can’t get out and about
- Deafblind people cannot communicate, deafblindness means you cannot see or hear at all
- Presbyacusis only affects older people
- All deaf people can use a telephone with a hearing aid or cochlear implant
- A Loop system is suitable for all deaf people who do not sign
- Hearing dogs can respond to all noises
- Hard of hearing people are all old
- Hard of hearing people do not have the same problems as deaf people
- Deaf people will follow you better if you shout
- I don’t need to make by business accessible – I have no deaf customers
- Deaf people don’t want to talk to me, I couldn’t communicate with them anyway, I would have to learn sign language to do so.
- A hearing aid user or a cochlear user can hear me if I shout their name across a crowded room
- Deaf people only hear (or see) what they want to” hear”, I think they’re pretending not to understand me
- You must use simple English when talking to a deaf person
- A sign language user cannot read subtitles
- Deafblind people cannot go out by themselves
- Deaf people do not lose any more hearing
- Deaf people are not allowed to drive
- Deaf people are not as intelligent as hearing people
- All deaf people want to be hearing
- Most deaf people have deaf parents
- All deaf people can communicate with each other
- All deaf people understand deaf culture
- BSL (British Sign language) is the same as ASL (American Sign Language) and AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language).
- BSL is a collection of gestures and similar to mime
- BSL users do not have cochlear implants
- Deaf people bring their own interpreters with them
- Deafness won’t happen to me.
© Suzie Jones, Deaf Awareness Trainer Read the original post here