First of all I would like to take a bit of the time to connect myself with all of you before I begin writing the article for today here as I usually like to engage with all of my friends or bloggers word “readers” before I write some articles. How are you all doing, everybody and what have you all have been up to lately? I hope that all of you haven’t gotten in trouble lately whether it is an accident or not accident and I hope that all of you are doing well especially in the wet areas. By wet areas I mean the areas where the rain or thunderstorms that are always there like here, if some of you lives in any dry areas then you are very lucky because down here it’s getting old quick because in this area it almost rains everyday along with the thunderstorms although regardless how aggravating it is to live in the area where there is always rain it has upside which is growing fruits, vegetables and crops healthy. The dry areas such as California downside would be that they are struggling with growing some plants whether it be vegetables or fruits, not only that also water to drink or to bathe in but I am sure that they will be alright because here in the east will be sharing with the west as the west has done so with the east for several years. Anyway for myself I have done well although someday not so well but that’s the part of life and I have been more busy than ever, a lot more busy than I have been for past few years which it’s weighting me down a lot lately but I keeps coming through thankfully. There’s a lot difference in my schedule than a few decades ago because this year I am now running three businesses instead of one for many years so this year doubled my daily tasks that I have to complete although I admits that sometimes I couldn’t completes daily’s tasks but thankfully I have completed 90% of tasks so the only problem I have with my schedule is the timing because I am never good with the timings.
As tough as it is on me with my new schedules for this year, so I better get on to writing an article because it may take me an hour or two to complete this task I have with this article because after writing an article I have to try to make sure that there’s no spelling errors, then do a bit of SEO works and once I done that I will have to publish this article to the social media which that is where I notify all of my readers or new readers that I have written an article. In case if you are wondering if this article will worth your time reading, I will go ahead and tell you what this article is going to be about so that you can decide if you want to continue reading or not. I am writing an article about myself being hard of hearing and how it is difficult being it, so basically this article is my life as hard of hearing so if you don’t want to continue reading I will understand.
Hard Of Hearing In Life.
I have realized that there are some of the people who may not know that I am hard of hearing so now I am going to say it again that I am hard of hearing, it is very difficult being one and there are many reasons behind the difficulty being hard of hearing. When I was born I was very ill with high temperature which that can be what caused myself to become hard of hearing or it’s my genetic that caused it because there’s another member in my family who are deaf so it’s either one of them but I am certain that it’s the genetic especially from my father’s side but if you ever ask him, he will immediately deny that and blames it on the doctors by saying that the chemicals they used or whatever it was to cause myself to be hard of hearing because he never will admit that he has deaf/hard of hearing genetic. Yes, my dad is that cruel as he always will be which it is one of the reason both of us never get along with each others but being hard of hearing is something that I actually take the pride in. Deaf or hard of hearing has their own beautiful culture that I am proud to be part of, deaf or hard of hearing always take pride of themselves because we all cares about our deaf or hard of hearing culture and not only that we also take pride in American Sign Language (ASL) which is takes a major part of the deaf or hard of hearing’s culture. If you want to learn about deaf/hard of hearing culture then I encourage you to do some research on the search engines or read a book titled “Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood”.
Here’s the link to the book at Amazon: Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood
While I take the pride in being hard of hearing along with deaf/hard of hearing culture & community, I still struggles more than ever being hard of hearing and I am not the only one that struggles as there are thousands of thousands up to millions deaf/hard of hearing people who struggles. Why do we struggles as deaf or hard of hearing? Communication, not only that having no accesses or being discriminated by many of the people who able to hear especially like businesses or such. You think that passing Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) bill means that we would receive the fairness or equality that others who able to hear? Heck no, not even close. We have to work ourselves to get things without any help including our own governments here in the United States, for example thanks to Marlee Matlin who is an actress in Children of a Lesser God movie fought in the court so that we could have closed captions so we can get same pleasure as everybody else to watch some movies or television shows on our television in late 90’s but not only that she also fought to force Netflix a steaming company to have closed captions on all of movies or television shows they have. A decade ago for us deaf or hard of hearing to make some calls using TTY finally changed for the better because we now gets the equipment that called VRS (videophone relay service) and ip relay service where we can make some calls using AOL messenger or their own company’s software that the interpreters will voice to the hearing people through phone by reading our text that we type then the interpreter will type what the caller are saying but as usual which is saddening by the way, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) forced these companies to ends them which that means we can no longer be able to call anybody nor make call to 911. That tells you how much unfair the governments or many hearing people being to us by making things even harder for us to have accesses so to make our life easier, thankfully FCC allows the companies to continue videophone relay service where the deaf/hard of hearing will have to get on camera (think like Skype) with an interpreter who will interpret whatever we says to the callers then the interpreter will interpret whatever the caller are saying to us in American Sign Language (ASL) but still it’s not enough because using IP Relay Service which where we use instant messenger instead that interpreters will interpret from text to voice is easier especially for myself who have difficulty in use of our arms especially like myself because for some reason my shoulders and below don’t bend well anymore but I guess that’s the part of getting old.
As for myself I have struggled a lot more than you could ever imagine, being hard of hearing I have experienced a horrible things especially unfairness and communication barriers. Where I lives there is hardly any interpreters but one or two within’ a hundred miles away from this area so basically this area is NOT deaf or hard of hearing friendly at all but thankfully I had an interpreter throughout my school years but I wouldn’t have if she didn’t committed to attend classes to learn American Sign Language because she attends classes to become interpreter specifically for me so that I can get some education from schools. I have tried to get jobs at many places including burgers flipping joints but they have rejected my application due to hard of hearing so they are very lucky that I did not file lawsuit against McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Dairy Queens, Wal-Mart, mall, Hardees, Pizza Hut and KFC for discrimination. So that makes this area not deaf or hard of hearing friendly so if any one of you who happens to be deaf or hard of hearing ever thinking about to move over here in Belfry, KY or anywhere nearby that area then I advise you not to because you will either get same bad treatments or worse than I had to experience and still is experiencing the discrimination. So myself growing up here is a bit hard especially when it comes to social because there aren’t many of the people who knows American Sign Language to talk to me but I am thankful to only few friends of mine who was willing to learn American Sign Language so to talk to me all the time like Justin Jordan, Josh Pyles, Robert Wolfe, Jimmy Ray and among others as it would only take at least a week or two to learn American Sign Language which that is something that not a lot of people realizes. Not only that the majority of my family doesn’t even know American Sign Language or would be willing to learn so to talk to me but thankfully my mother’s side family such as my mom, my grandparents, aunt Debbie and uncle Brian wouldn’t hesitate to learn American Sign Language so that they know how to talk to me but on my dad’s side there is NO single ONE was willing to learn American Sign Language so to talk to me.
So my life as hard of hearing isn’t great because it is so complications for me that I had to deal with and still have to deal more of them in the future until the day I am no longer here. With these problems isn’t the only problems I have as being hard of hearing, trying to get a relationship with a girl or to have a family is probably the hardest thing as being hard of hearing I go through because like I said this is not deaf or hard of hearing friendly area so there isn’t any girls who know or willing to take time to learn American Sign Language so that they can get to know who I am but not only that this area everybody is so judgmental so it makes it even harder for me to find someone to be with although I was lucky to have a few numbers of girlfriends in my life throughout schools but I haven’t had a girlfriend for many years because of not being able to communicate with them where I had an interpreter in schools so that helped me to be in relationship with a few of girls because where I had interpreter in school that helps them to learn how to communicate with me but after graduating school, I have no interpreter obviously so pretty much that makes it a lot harder or more so impossible to have somebody to be with as I have always dreams to have my family but I am almost sure that never will happen unless magically this area becomes deaf or hard of hearing friendly but doubtful.
I always feel lost when I am going out somewhere because of the communications barrier, only if I have a personal interpreter then that might be a possibility of finding someone to be with because once somebody gets to know who I am then they would be encouraged to learn American Sign Language so that they can talk to me personally which that how it goes when I was in school. But there is no interpreter at all in this area although I can hire an interpreter a few hours away from here but it’s expensive especially that these days the interpreter are paid more hourly than 12-15 dollars so use the calculation to figure it out yourself how much it would cost me to have an interpreter daily paying about 18-20 dollars hourly. With the majority of my mother’s family have passed away there’s only 2-3 people who know American Sign Language here including my mother so it’s tough on me especially when it comes to social and that explains why I am always chatting because it makes me feel more independent. I am not the only one as there are many deaf or hard of hearing who are struggling the same I am or some worse but we still take the pride in ourselves for our deaf or hard of hearing culture.
Most of deaf or hard of hearing including myself have been pressured several times by audism and the audism is what we call these people who forces us to use our voice to communicate without using American Sign Language because if we use American Sign Language we would get our hands slapped or threatened to cuff our hands back so that would make us suffer by forcing us to use our own voice to communicate when we absolutely cannot because we can’t hear to learn how to speak vocally. Think many decades ago when the colored people were forced to sit in the colored section on the bus or forced to work for the white people, if not willing to do so would be harmed severely now that’s almost same concept for the treatment we as deaf or hard of hearing receives from childhood and still to this day. Trying to make us to speak using our own voice while not realizing that American Sign Language one of the official language here in the United States, we always involve everybody who be able to hear because we wants them to feel that we are united but in return they want to make sure that we are human beings with half-brain because several decades ago when some doctors finds out that you are deaf or hard of hearing, they would sometimes tell their parents that you have half brain or you are dumb but what they don’t realize is that we can do anything the hearing people can do except the ability to hear.
The life of hard of hearing especially mine is tough sometimes especially when it comes to deal with the unfairness and while at same time I try to make sure that they feel fair so I guess that I have a soft heart myself. I hope that sometimes in the future that our generations won’t have to deal the same way we had to experience and continue to experience the horrible things that we have went through and is still going through. If you are activist and want to help us then what you can do is tell governments, AG Bell, white house and other businesses to stop and hand them a printed paper of ABC in sign language then tell them it would only take them an hour to learn the basic of American Sign Language which happens to be one of the official language for United States. And also tell the hospitals to stop telling the parents that their newborn deaf or hard of hearing needs to have cochlear implements because they are NOT a cure and they will stop their own children from having their own life because if getting cochlear implements then they would not allowed to play any kinds of sports because if they gets hit in the head they can be killed which that happens to many of the people (you can search it up on Google).
To any one of you who happens to be deaf or hard of hearing, I know how you are going through because you aren’t alone, don’t give up and keep on fighting for ourselves and our future generations for deaf or hard of hearing culture & our deaf or hard of hearing community. I know it’s tough on you as it is on me too but as long as we keep walking tall over them then in due time they will realize that we all bleed the same color. For anyone of you who able to hear but have no clue about deaf or hard of hearing history or such but want to learn a bit more about the deaf or hard of hearing culture then please feel free to contact me and I would be more than happy to have a chat with you about them so you can learn something about us.
Thank you very much for reading this article and be sure to keep checking back to see if I am writing another article because I am planning on to write another article either by tomorrow or in a couple of days if I can find something or hear something that is interesting enough for me to write about but if you have any ideas what I should write about or on in the next article then I would greatly appreciate if you would click here to submit your ideas! I hope that all of you have a great night, and all of you be safe wherever you all are at or whatever it is that you all are planning on to do for the night, stay awesome my friends!
Feel free to follow me on Twitter @JoshiesWorld or like JoshiesWorld official Facebook page.
- Joshie.
