I got fed up!

In my response to someone else’s response to my response in someone else’s blog, I wrote:

I got fed up!

I am Deaf, not hard of hearing!!

Due to some mysterious reason, I fall between the chairs among the hard of hearing and the Deaf.

In the Deaf Community, I am considered to be hard of hearing due to all kinds of reasons, such as educational level, which are not relevant to the communication ability per se.

Among the hard of hearing, I am considered as deaf. When Keshev (an Israeli organization of the hard of hearing and deafened adults, which went bankrupt at 1992) was active, I was not eligible to be a regular member in this organization, due to a prohibition in the organization’s constitution on letting deaf persons become members of Keshev. When Bekol (another organization of the hard of hearing and deafened adults, which replaced Keshev and is active today) started the “7th Ear” group (a social group of the hearing impaired, which was active in Tel Aviv area), I was not invited to participate in this group due to the same reason.

Functionally, I am deaf as far as my ability to use sound to help me understand speech is concerned. I can hear some sounds using a strong hearing aid, but not to use them to understand better speech.

And if anyone says again that I am “hard of hearing” rather than “deaf”, I’ll force him to sit down (and fall) between two chairs!!!

Author: Omer Zak

I am deaf since birth. I played with big computers which eat punched cards and spew out printouts since age 12. Ever since they became available, I work and play with desktop size computers which eat keyboard keypresses and spew out display pixels. Among other things, I developed software which helped the deaf in Israel use the telephone network, by means of home computers equipped with modems. Several years later, I developed Hebrew localizations for some cellular phones, which helped the deaf in Israel utilize the cellular phone networks. I am interested in entrepreneurship, Science Fiction and making the world more accessible to people with disabilities.