If You Could Feel What I Feel

Hearing is an essential part of communication. People with Hearing Impairments are comparable to people in a foreign country, who don't know how to speak the language. The situation can be very unsettling and upsetting at times.

When you're either hearing impaired or deaf, you may believe the hearing world is not sensitive enough to your needs. You know the hearing could never understand the loss you are dealing with on a daily basis. Sometimes the hurt feelings turn into anger and you'll feel so vulnerable at times.

None of us enjoy being in a situation, where you lack control. Suddenly due to your hearing problems, your life changes so drastically which causes you pain. It's a frightening condition to find yourself dealing with.

I was watching a new tv series called CSI. This particular episode dealt with a deaf student who was murdered. The administrator of his school came down very hard on the team of investigators. She felt they showed a strong lack of insensitivity towards the deaf community. In one scene the Dean admitted her deafness wasn't her handicap. Infact, the lifestyle she was forced to live in, in the hearing world was the handicap. Her behavior became quite different, when the Captain showed a compassionate understanding of hearing versus the deaf world.

I was trying to place myself in her position, so I could better comprehend where she was coming from. When the school offical spoke with the group of investigators, it appeared she felt they were patronizing her, even at the onset of their first meeting. The anger seemed inapporpiate, unfair and completely out of line to them.

In making the adjustments to fit into the hearing world your attitude can turn bitter against the normal way to others. You begin to see how for the hearing they take for granted their good fortune to hear properly without assistance.

In the tv show one of the students (deaf) became a suspect in the murder case. I never knew a polygraph system was available for the deaf. The police officer placed a headset device which reads the brainwaves of the individual as they are viewing slides or photos they are trying to identify. Example: The show the hearing impaired or deaf person a photo of a person (his roommate, and then show him a photo of his roommate's dead body at the location of the crime and the machine attached to his head shows various movements as to the familiarity of the photos to the person they are reading the chart on.

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