When someone sees my article title, if they are deaf, it is likely that they
would understand what I meant by that. There are so a lot of misconceptions
about deaf people and all the time when I encounter one, I ask what is wrong
with these people?! Yesterday I was with my friend at a book store
in Rochester, NY. The store was about to close. We knew that it was time to
close, and we were getting ready, but there was store employee who was staring
at us to make sure that we were leaving without even letting us know that they
were closing the store.
After we left, my friend asked me did you notice they were
watching at us more than they were looking other people if we were leaving? I
say oh yeah! I knew that the woman was looking at us, but I did not pay
attention to it. My friend felt upset about how they watch on deaf people
without trying to communicate with them. Apparently they were not
comfortable communicating with us. My friend had encountered like
this incident before in this store so it was not new to her.
Some hearing people are afraid talking to deaf a persons, because
they think they are different. There are people who think the only way to
communicate with deaf is to use sign language which is absolutely untrue! How
many times I had someone tell me “oh sorry! I don’t know sign language with
sorry face” to get my sympathy. Deaf people are not all the
time with those who can sign with them. Most deaf people have hearing families
and friends who don’t know sign language. Deaf go to everywhere and communicate
others using whatever communication method is available such as pen and
paper.
I was surprised that the store employees could not communicate
with us. There were not any alarms to let people know that they were closing.
Instead they walked to hearing people and told them they were closing. But they
did not talk to us. My friends said, “It's
kind of insulting that they had to put a distance between us and them where
they could have come closer and just have a paper and a pen to let us know that
they are closing”. Instead of
staring us like we were an strange things fell from the sky, all they needed
were to come to us with some respect and let u know that they were going to
close the store.
I am sure there are a lot of deaf people who have experienced kind
of this thing. Next time if you are deaf and someone stares you thinking that
you are not leaving, because you are deaf, tell them you are not a TV
screen. It is just so annoying when people do kind of these things
to deaf. Misconception like believing deaf would not understand
things need to stop. I have always argued that understanding and
hearing are two different things. Deaf people are not really stupid as some
people think. Being deaf does not necessarily mean that deaf person can’t see
things. It does not mean they are immature. They have sights and
senses like everyone else. People need to give some humanly respect!
