Distorted Images

Hearing Impairment changes the image of how you see yourself in the world. Whether, your hearing loss occurs when you're a child or an adult, the way you view yourself will never be the same again. You can sink or swim but it helps if you don't become obsessed with the condition.

The loss you suffer is purely more obvious to you, than the hearing people who are coping in their own lives. Yet all the concerns I have regarding my own hearing loss turns out to be very needless. In this noisey environment we must all deal with conquering over the noisey distractions.

Discrimination regarding hearing impairment or deafness is still present in our society. I came across two examples in the newspaper. One was about a legal case against a well known store, Wal-Mart. Two deaf applicants were rejected for working at a Wal-Mart in the State of Arizona.

My reaction was one of complete amazement. In their commercials, they display a wide range of workers in their stores. I feel it's a disgrace to the good name of Wal-Mart, when they discrimate against handicapped people trying to make their way in the world today.

The other article was regarding a deaf high school student in New Jersey. The student was suspended for signing (using American Sign Language). The reason for the suspension was the authorities felt the action was causing a safety hazard.

It makes you ponder just how illogical this action on the part of the authorities was. There are far more disturbing elements in the schools, these days, which need to be addressed with stricter punishments, then a deaf student dealing with their normal way of life. What was the administrator thinking about when he or she came up with this being an unsafe situation? How unsafe can a conversation with someone be? I would imagine a safety hazard to be more like a fallen wire suspended in air, or a jump rope left on the school yard to be tripped over.

But a person speaking in their native tongue? I mean really. Perhaps this administrator was in fear of someone getting hurt by someone watching the student signing to another student and not paying attention to where they were walking, and may fall or trip. It still seems a bit far-fetched.

After all, the repercussions for anyone who is deaf or hearing impaired are hard enough to deal with in our stressful world without adding to it. In many cases, we are made to feel out of the loop, due to something we never asked for in our entire life in the first place. The pain of being scrutinized, only rips away at our image of the person we really are.

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