Hearing Awareness
July 17th, 2009
Exactly what is Hearing Awareness and how will it help? I posted a question on my Facebook for ideas on what could be included in a hearing awareness workshop. Some interesting comments and great ideas but most of them centred on what deaf people have learnt about their hearing colleagues and friends. Perhaps we need to ask hearing people (who have some experience of working with, or living with, deaf people) what they would like to see included in a course for deaf people to learn more about hearing people. I am thinking back to previous conversations I’ve had with hearing colleagues and they have tended to say things like “deaf people think we can hear things a mile away – actually we can’t!” (slight exaggeration there but you get the gist), “I can’t talk to you & the person on the phone at the same time”, “I get annoyed when the deaf person expects me to drop everything and focus on them” (we could argue the toss with that one) and so forth. There are some very valid points for hearing people to make and I really would be interested in what these might be (and why). Over to you!
I remember one thing that I never thought I would hear! I was so shocked at the time as I had never realised this at all
Deaf people are so noisy!
…apparently we are very noisy in the workplace ….we drop files on to the tables instead of lifting them onto the table …..let cupboard doors fall shut instead of closing it
Also we tend to use our fingers a lot to point …hearing people find it offensive so we need to be more aware in hearing environment
I have often wondered how much people can hear – can they hear through the walls ? are they really listening when they are not looking at me when I am talking ? how do I know they are listening?…I remember asking my mum who is hearing if they could hear me doing my business in the bathroom if they were in the room underneath !!
Does this help ?
I agree with you about how noisy we are and that we find it difficult to work out what hearing people can actually hear. In hot weather people like to leave the office door open but I hate it because I can’t tell how much people can hear at the end of the corridor. The question is though – what do hearing people want us to know about them? (your example of being offended by finger pointing)
A few quick thoughts…
Hearing people get confused if we don’t explain to them the role of the interpreters.
They get offended if we are not looking at them when signing to the terp.
Deaf people can make hearing people feel excluded when signing with other BSL users. But they can equally do the same to us. But we have to remember who is employing us!
Deaf jokes don’t always translate well, sometimes it is best left unsaid. Also, BSL users need to realise that being blunt may be part of deaf culture, but its not always appreciated in a hearing working environment.
Just a few of my thoughts so far.
A very valid topic for discussion – I did wonder to myself that we needed hearing awareness a few years back – it is all very well us demanding deaf awareness but we should also learn how to fit in a hearing society – For instance, a deaf friend and I were signing, and one of my hearing friends was upset because he thought I was talking about him – which wasn’t the case – that made me think and try to include the hearing person a lot more – I often like to include my deaf friend’s hearing children in our conversation as I don’t like omitting them just because they are hearing.
I often ensure that when a hearing person is in the conversation, to relay what I am saying – and hopefully that will ensure that the hearing person feels valued.
I was told off once by a team member a long time ago for typing too loudly – yes typing too loudly – unfortunately I am a fast typist but a colleague did not like the noise so I respected that.
Thanks to your recent discussion about including the hearing person when in a conversation along with interpreter, I have made a consious effort to try and look at the hearing person from time to time more often.
My hearing partner tells me that he finds some deaf people incredibly direct, to the point of rudeness, sometimes – too much point, physical descriptions, etc. It did make me wonder if deaf people don’t always understand how hearing people get hung up about this…