I had an interesting experience today.  An experience all deaf people have and really don’t think about – or we don’t allow ourselves to consider. I was walking to my car and bumped into my local estate agent. We chatted for a minute or two  walking to my car which happened to be parked outside a hairdressers, one (by coincidence) we both use. The hairdresser came outside and said “Hi” to both of us. At that point,  I said “Cheers” and drove away as I knew maintaining a conversation with both of them would just be too difficult and stressful, even though they are both very nice guys and easy to communicate with on a one to one basis. So what happened there? I turned down an opportunity of a fresh and new conversation which might, just might, have taught me something new. So if we all miss opportunities like this that hearing people have ten times a day, surely our expanding knowledge and social skills is going to grow at a slower rate – how can it be otherwise? That does not mean hearing people are wise and wonderful (not at all) and that we are not, but it does mean we might have less spontaneous opportunities to expand and grow our conversational muscles.  How many conversations did you miss today?

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!

London is great for BSL arts events (there are some which have lipspeakers too) – in fact, there’s almost too many of them! I hate it when there are two in one night – there just aren’t enough D/deaf arts visitors to share around galleries. Ggrr. (By the way I know why this happens so please don’t all rush to explain) Publicity is still a huge problem for most galleries and public institutions.  Deafworks is often contacted for help on this topic – but as internet advertising and social networking is changing so fast and with most websites (such as the RNID) now only advertising their own events, it is really difficult to get your message out there. Facebook is good for the people on Facebook but not for others. I have started adding arts events to my website (http://www.deafworks.co.uk/resources/deaf_arts_events.php) but it means that a deaf individual has to log onto different websites to find out what is going on in their area. There has to be a better way of marketing all that is going on in wonderful London & other places.

I met someone today who says she is profoundly deaf and I was so tempted to have a discussion with her (but didn’t). You may ask is it that important? What bothers me is that we use terminology without understanding what it really means. Audiological terms are defined as what a person can hear with (not without) a hearing aid, but most people define themselves (in audiological terms) as what they can hear without a hearing aid. This is an incorrect use of these terms. Partially hearing (or partially deaf) indicates that with a hearing aid you have some useful hearing. Profoundly deaf means even with a hearing aid you will get very little benefit from it. Why is it important to be clear? Well, the first thing I would say is that it is not a competition. You don’t have to be “as deaf as you can” so as to prove that you are really deaf. It also puzzles work colleagues when you say you are profoundly deaf (as indeed you are without a hearing aid) then proceed to have a perfectly comfortable conversation or hear the fire alarm. It just doesn’t hang together and then we get into “well, she can hear if she wants to” which doesn’t help anybody. Let’s just be upfront and honest about who we are and accept there’s no need to pretend to be somebody we are not.