Mark Drolsbaugh is a Deaf guy, who also runs workshops for hearing parents of deaf children.
In his Evolution of a Cochlear Implant Attitude article, he writes about getting a number of parents breaking down in tears in a simple workshop closing exercise:
“All I did was ask them to share positive traits and abilities their kids have. More specifically, traits and abilities that have nothing to do with deafness or the ears. All I wanted was for them to stop looking at the disability and start looking at the ability. Even though I made my point, the emotional reaction catches me off guard.”
This reminded me of the deaf man from nightmares. This man, DB, is a deaf psychologist, who is very strong advocate of oralism. He spends a lot of time improving and polishing his speech. What I find especially troubling about him is that every time we meet, in a social function of the hearing impaired, the one and only subject, which he would discuss with me, is the uttermost importance of my getting speech therapy and improving my speech. Nothing else is important or worthy of discussion. SHUDDER!
We the deaf are not only ears. We are also software development, sports, art, parenting, and simply living human beings. This is what those parents and DB failed to acknowledge.
