life got EXTRA difficult for deaf people...
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.ค. 2021
- This video was made strictly following CDC COVID guidelines. I hope these perspectives can enlighten you about the tolls the pandemic has taken on the deaf community.
VOICEOVERS PROVED BY ALICE ROSE AND JON URQUHART
JAKE GRAFMAN:
IG: @thatdeafjew
TT: @thatdeafjew
ERIN ROSENFELD:
IG: @erin.sydney
TT: @erin.syd
BLAKELYN LARKIN:
IG: @blakelyn_Leigh
TT: @Blakelynleigh
RACHEL FAY:
IG: @faythefae
TT: @Faythegay
Jon Urquhart:
IG: @jonurquhart
~Find me on Social Media! ~
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I’m hearing and I work in customer service and I always feel shy using ASL with deaf customers since I’m so new to it but little by little I use it and have noticed how kind and patient they’ve been with me
It’s such a HUGE relief when someone signs if they’re wearing a mask, I don’t care how basic it is. Thanks for trying!
Something is better than nothing trust me even if it just a paper n pen. Covid-19 really effected me because my hear sids had age out and gave me so much anxiety because my hearing is already muffled then the mask makes it completely inaudible. I went to a psych ward and felt really isolated because doctors was 6 ft away I’m also legally blind with correction these past 2 year been a train wreck
@@AvoryFaucette this is so reassuring. Thank you!❤️
@@lilms.deafpastrychef7249 I’ve been to the psych ward for different reasons. It sucks; I can’t lie. And I was the one who decided to go check myself in. I can only imagine how much worse it is with a mask and hearing aids flying off. My partner finds masks with head loops instead of ear loops to be the only kind tolerable. Ear loop masks just rub on his hearing aids and yank them out when he takes the mask off. Have you tried ear savers? You can just sew two buttons onto a piece of ribbon, or there are commercial products to get an ear loop mask around the back of your head and off your ears. I’ve done the buttons and ribbon thing and it works really well. 😺❤️
If anyone knows patience, it's deaf/hard of hearing individuals. I would feel equally nervous but im so happy you're working in that field. That would be a dream for me. But I've barely learnt any asl
Chrissy .. Speaking as a retired educator, a Deafish person, and one who also worked in higher education providing accommodations for people with disabilities, as one who long ago did disability and Deaf awareness presentations, I must say that this is one of the best educational videos I have ever seen on this kind of subject. It's stellar!
I relate to everything. Hearing aids, guessing what the other person is trying to say or ask, everything. If you don't have a graduate degree, you should get one. I went to Antioch long ago. They can be very accommodating.
yes!! i have autism/auditory processing issues. it's by no means the same amount of hardship as d/Deaf people went through. as soon as the pandemic started everything was a nightmare. i still have a panic attack just thinking about going to the bank. xoxo thank you for the info
SAME. ADHD with ADP and this whole situation is ROUGH. I’ve basically stopped going anywhere.
Samesame. I have ADHD and while my hearing is technically excellent, as soon as the sound isn’t perfectly clear, it just all gets completely jumbled up somewhere between my ears and my brain. So if people mumble, or have a strong accent (and boy am I always nervous about that one! I’m really worried people will think I’m racist, but I only understand a few accents- Australian, RP English, standard North American, New Zealand… and that’s about it.). People have thought I was mocking them for being immigrants because I kept asking them to repeat themselves. I ended up saying I was HoH (even though I’m technically not), because APD is too difficult to explain.
So needless to say, the way that makes muffle voices… I’m just completely lost. And it makes me feel stupid, having to constantly ask people to repeat themselves. It makes them treat me even worse, and as I’m a wheelchair user, I’m already infantilised by so many people.
I’ll be so glad when the masks go away.
This is a good video, this is a issue that most people don't understand about those with certain needs. Thanks for putting this out here.
One week into the pandemic I had a hard time hearing people wearing face masks and my hearing works perfectly fine. My first thought was "If I'm having a hard time... How much of a struggle will this be for Hard Of Hearing people? Let alone people who rely on lip reading?"
As if dealing with Covid in general isn't a struggle enough...
I'm trying to learn Sign Language to be more inclusive
Thank you for making this video! This needs more attention
Great video! I didn’t realize how much I lip read until the mask mandate happened. So frustrating at times.
Great video 👍🏻 Covid was part of the reason I decided to pick ASL back up after a lot years. It just seemed to make sense to do so.
I’m trying to imagine what it would be like if I was required to wear a blindfold indefinitely.
On the positive side, some people who did not realize that they had hearing loss felt compelled to find out and seek help.
It makes me think of a couple I knew who had an infant daughter that seemed overwarm and in pain. Repeated trips to the only pediatrician offered in their health plan turned up no answers. Their baby lost her appetite and lost weight. In desperation they took her to the head of pediatrics at that time at Oregon Health and Science University. He told them that not only did she have a double ear infection in each ear (both sides of each eardrum), but one eardrum was eaten away by the bacteria. Thank God, she pulled through! After several years in the public school system, they thought that their underachieving daughter had some cognitive impairment. What doctors finally found was that this extremely bright girl was profoundly hard of hearing in the other ear as well, and she had made it through to the 4th grade by mainstreaming herself with reading, lipreading, and keenly observing others. With an eardrum reconstruction and hearing aids, she was able to improve her learning curve. She decided to stay in the mainstream learning environment, finished high school, and got a nice job. I wonder what might have happened for her if ASL had been taught as a second language at the High School, as it is now in some others.
Great video. Thanks for sharing. I think way too many of us don’t try to make honest talk with those in the grocery store line. That clerk has to chat all day long. It is nice to slow down and listen and sign and talk with honesty and kindness.
I know the struggle being Hard of Hearing, and therefore I often find myself frustrated and overwhelmed by the new norm. Until such time that this pandemic ends, we are left at the mercy of those who refuse to look beyond the mask and see what day to day difficulties we encounter.
Thank you for posting in the hopes that the message will diffuse out!
i’m autistic w/ audio processing issues, and also go partially or completely nonverbal in public. sign was actually my first language, but my early school years forced me not to and i forgot a lot of it. i am very happy more schools are adding sign language classes to open up everyone’s worlds to more communication.
That's legit. That's a great, educational video. Thank you for doing this, Chrissy!
As a deaf person, I completely stayed out of public and stayed home 90% of time so I don't have to deal with hearing people with masks. It makes me more stressed out if a hearing person pulls their mask down, assuming I lipread. What they don't understand is that not ALL deaf and hard of hearing people can lipread. I don't lipread.
Now that I've been vaccinated for a few months, I was doing a curbside pickup last week. The lady who brought my order over, I gestured to her that I'm deaf. Out of respect, she patted her mask as if to ask if I lipread. I shook my head and she spelled my name in ASL to confirm it's me. I was like "yes!" in sign language. It did make my day even better because she knew the ABC's in ASL. It's always so much appreciated.
Do you play Guild Wars 2?
this is such a huge problem for me at work- we ended up just getting rid of our plexiglass shield thing because we could hear anything our customers were saying (and most of our customers are "up there" in age, so they couldnt hear us at ALL).
its a bit better since we've gotten rid of that, but not by a whole lot. it doesnt help that our speaker system is broken and only the one right above the register works, so the music is super loud right there. i can hear perfectly fine on a normal basis, but i do have autism so its hard for me to understand. i can hear them talking, but its like the adults in charlie brown. which is not good when its my customers! theres been times ive accidentally rang up something when they actually wanted me to put it on hold for them, and then its just a big awkward mess
its especially frustrating because im trying learn ASL (or at least SEE or PSE) but its not gonna do me much good because most of our customers are elderly and are just not losing their hearing, so they know even less sign than i do, if any at all. they also cant see very well usually so if i type it out, i have to change the settings in my phone first so they can even read it. writing it down works sometimes because we keep giant sheets of paper at the register to wrap breakables in, but it would be so much quicker if i could just sign. and people always feel bad for holding up the line, which just breaks my heart because they literally cant help it
i really wish we were just taught sign as children, along with our regular curriculum. it would make everything so much easier for everyone- i imagine losing your hearing wouldnt be nearly as stressful if you didnt have to learn an entire new language at the same time. people with thick accents, speech impediments, and auditory processing issues would benefit too (which i say as someone who has all 3 of those things). its absolutely insane that most schools (at least in my area) dont even offer ASL as an optional class. its very obviously something we should all be taught. and ive even read that some kids learn spoken language better when its paired with sign. i cannot for the life of me think of a *single* reason it shouldnt be part of the standard curriculum.
This is a great video! Thank you for your efforts and the efforts of those who participated along side, sharing their experiences. Where I live a lot of people have not had exposure to the Deaf community, or even hard-of-hearing people beyond their elderly relatives, and the lack of any empathy is overwhelming.
This is exactly how I feel. I am getting to a point of age related hearing loss. I can’t hear it 3000 and up frequencies and when in a noisy environment I might as well be profoundly deaf. Great work on this Chrissy. Awesome work on this.
Thank you for this wonderful video!! The masks have definitely made communication a lot harder so I can only hope that people continue to be as patient as possible and open to changing how they communicate to improve clarity.
One minute in and I am crying lol the pandemic is how I found out that I had degenerative hearing loss. I have such a hard time every day and it’s brought up so many issues for me
💗💗💗
❤️❤️❤️
I have both APD and during Covid developed hearing loss as well. Over the course of the pandemic, I have steadily been avoiding going anywhere that I would interact with people except the doctor's office. If I went to the store, I took my hearing spouse to deal with the checkout since I can't understand them with the mask. I ended up getting in the habit of turning the volume up on my hearing aids anytime I needed to hear someone in a mask, especially if they were also behind plexiglass. It helped but honestly isn't a healthy option. Even digital communication has been a struggle. Zoom audio can be difficult to understand sometimes and unless I have CART arranged people either don't have captions or they use shitty auto-generated captions (no current auto-generated captioning technology is ADA compliment because of the high level of inaccuracies).
You are not alone 💜
Great video! So many people forgot their humanity during all this and it's a good reminder to be patient
There should be a petition for sign language to be an actual class taught in schools!
Hi, this is a great video. I lost all my hearing during the pandemic (literally the worst possible time to go deaf). It's honestly so stressful. I'll be getting a cochlear implant this coming week though so that might help.
Thanks for sharing. I feel like a lot of deaf/hoh people are so used to it they don't bring it up like they should be able to.
The masks informed me that I relied on lip reading way more than I realized. I knew I always had a problem until I got used to a person's inflections which made phone calls frustrating. I always thought it was something with the phones. Masks made me so frustrated I cried so many times. I can hear fine, I'm not deaf or HOH. just something between ears and brain screw up.
I have spent much of this year tuning out of conversations because I am unable to hear everything clearly and with masks I can not read lips. I have gotten so frustrated I just cry at times.
It’s the people who have no empathy that are the burden! Sociopaths everywhere
Racism and Covid are excuses to separate people. Either we comply or we are attacked. We are hated for being different when we should celebrate it. Covid opinions are called fact and opposed opinions are banned. The news influences people through hate. TH-cam promotes racism and hate speech while deleting peaceful creative speech. I have lost access to activities in my life that make me happy. Barricades and signs promoting Covid everywhere. Fear of death and guilt for those who think differently. The force doesn't work for me. Peace to the dead and let the healthy people thrive! Let's work hard and keep our money. I hate having it spent on Covid. Trillions on Covid causes inflation. Businesses are losing revenue. Businesses are permanently closing. People are paid to squat. Landlords don't get paid. People don't want to work because they are given money. Society is antisocial. Hysteria... Propaganda... Kids forced to antisocial. They use the term Science as leverage to convince an argument. Science is experimentation and study. They changed the term fact to mean Democrat promoted. The logic of covid force, antisocialising, and hate speech is disinformation. Astonishing people continue to be influenced by ignorance.
@@caseycasper7127 your mind is diseased. I hope you get well soon
@@M_SC I replied to you but they erased the comment. I wished you and your entire family would get covid but go without symptoms, so that you were all safe and not afraid. I took diseased as a compliment and thanked you for hoping me better.
I went on about other stuff... My comment was erased but wish you well with the exception to people forcing others. I wish we can be different and all get along peacefully.
Can't believe you can say I have a diseased mind but I can't speak my opinion back!
I went on about other stuff because I wish people to think. They erased me!
I said society worships money and power. I think often power causes harm and I see extreme wealth as a monument to corruption.
May God put an end to those preventing the 1st amendment. Those stopping creative speech will fail and fall into an eternal sleep. I will happily celebrate their end.
Love love love this video! I thinking to share with my co-workers. I’m HOH: have been all my life! But know very little sign. Constantly have to remind co-workers I can’t read lips with mask on! Very frustrating! Thank God for online meetings, and pleased to know MS Teams has closed captioning! Wished people did too, 😂😂.
thanks for including so many different perspectives as well as your own!
people tend to assume that d/Deaf and HOH people are only one way or only communicate one way and it’s so cool to see the diversity in the deaf community!
I work for Wegmans and trying to
Do customer service was and still is very tough, thankfully my work made a button I can put on my cloth mask that lets others know of my hearing loss, that said I still get folks who just can’t go outside the box and try to help
I’m a photographer and I’m trying to learn ASL signs to do a better work with some of my clients. Thank you for this video, it helps me to making more effort to learn and practice 💕
Fantastic video!
That's so true I have a hard time hearing people. I'm love learning sign language!
I’m learning ASL and I absolutely love the language and the culture! Soon I’ll be able to help you all have a better experience! I hope. ❤🤟🏻
ASL is the only language i have the desire to learn .. hopfully i can pick it up..i'm so forgetful because of a head injury ... wish me luck!!!...love your channel btw! just discovered it today
We are living in such a rude world. People should have been extra nice, understanding, and beneficial to everyone, especially during a pandemic when so many people had to suffer in so many different kind of ways. But that's the world we live in today: Everyone is only thinking about themselves instead of others and not how to act in the best way they could to help by even trying. (For example to take out the mobile phone and typing a message, so the person can read it, if not being able to hear each other or communicate by hand signs.)
Thank you for all of your videos. They are so educational for my hearing-privileged self! Keep it up, Chrissy!
Amazing video and so STRONG POSITIVE POWER and great message and Ur a hero and inspiring ❤️
I want to study to be an ASL interpreter actually. Especially for students in school. I’m so sorry that you guys are having these difficulties. Hopefully more people can learn to be patient and understanding of your needs! Even more people learning at least the basics of signing would be great!
Yes thank you for making this video! During March to August 2020, I didn't worry too much about not understanding anyone. I went into a store, got my stuff, and left as quickly as humanly possible or relied on curbside.
Afterwards, I got a new job, and I was in public- customer service facing and boy was it a doozy. I've had many people get frustrated that their mumbling cannot be understood by me. I had people tell me to go away if I can't hear them properly. I have to remind some people to speak loudly when they have a mask on. Some completely understand. Some I've had to pop my hearing aids out and they're horrified and apologetic. Some just don't give a fuck, sadly.
Mask time was the hardest for me to. Everything said in this video resonates within me.
Oh man, 100% and I work at a hospital so masking while providing patient care isn't going away any time soon haha. Definitely a struggle when I can't rely on lipreading and the masks definitely do muffle peoples speech. I'm a porter so most of the time when I'm transporting the patient they're not even facing me when they're talking either haha. Good times, I still manage and make the best of it though, but I have definitely gotten a lot more used to telling people that I'm hard of hearing / hearing impaired. I used to only tell people if it was absolutely necessary or so not to seem rude.
I remembered Jake! Met him at that bar by Csun lol
Yes. It's been highly difficult to communicate...I'm H.o.H
Been avoiding not wearing my baha hearing aids out there... too much unnecessary clothing my head wearing a mask, glasses, & hat (I'm sensitive to the light)
I've decided not to wear my baha, only for important days when needed...(morelike: taking my pets to the vets, etc)
Been so damn lonely out here living with some hearing roommates who doesn't know how to be considerate (or they'll be butt-hurt complaining putting captioning, very few words we'll exchange not much conversation)
Missed out about 60% of my communication with them lol I've had to guess out my thoughts what they're saying/asking depending on the event of the day they created...
Barely know anyone out here, too quiet lately not knowing how to connect anyone to do or can't find ppl to ft or Zoomchat regularly nowadays
I'm hearing. I do not understand the mindset of hearing people who don't know Sign and run away. Are they afraid of losing their hearing one day? Are they embarrassed they never took the time to study a very important language? (I get so embarrassed when I sign and spell wrong.) Even though I know some ASL I still shake like a leaf when I meet new Deaf people, but I can sign enough to work with anyone. "Deaf you? You prefer communicate how? Sign slow please. ___ sign mean what? Not understand. Understand..." I put a lot of work in learning ASL, and I can even now learn signs on the spot just by joining a conversation. I get so angry when I see hearing people not even try to use their encounters to learn at least one sign!
Omg YES! That first part is so reliable! I feel like my encounters now leave me so anxious, I don’t want to seem rude or dismissive but I literally can not hear. I can barely hear with no mask and hearing aids on but now with masks I swear it feels like I struggle so much more. It makes me want to cry & people don’t do much to accommodate when I say I am HOH and show them my hearing aids
I like this video. I totally related because when I go shopping I will says "huh" or "I don't understand you, because I'm deaf". So I told them "lower the mask down a little so I can read lips". The did. So my two doctors actually told me to take mask off or lower down mask.
thank you for this. hearing people will never understand how emotionally challenging and draining these things are for us. i had a very challenging day with ableist doctors and this video made me feel less alone so ty🤟🏼
I'm a hearing person and I still struggle so much with the masks! I think I have some sort of auditory processing issues and the masks just make everything worse, just asking people to repeat themselves ad nauseum until I get it. Although, I did see that my friend's mom (she's an ASL interpreter) and some people at my theatre department at school got clear masks so facial expressions were easier to read. Has anyone seen those? Do they work well?
Just even fingerspelling everything helps, that's what my professor said its better you fingerspell than try to say it
Great video! Thanks for sharing
ur beautiful queen
I'm deaf, I ended up in hospital, my speech is good and confusing to hearing people, my bowel ruptured and when I complained of the pain, I was called a silly bitch, since then I load G uni app, live transcribe. I sign but my phone listens for me.
Even us quiet people have some troubles because we have to basically yell to be heard through the mask. The answer? Let's all learn sign 😄
Thank you all for creating an awareness to this. I personally don’t know any ASL at all, but I think if there is ever a time to learn at least a little it is now. Even working in healthcare I wouldn’t have considered the burden wearing a mask creates for the deaf community. Naturally I wish to protect everyone’s health. Would you recommend writing or if both people are vaccinated to remove the mask so reading lips and facial expressions would be easier?
Stay safe and again I thank you for your advocacy in protecting your community. You are all champions and heroes of public health.
Your videos are all expertly made and so easy to watch. Please consider a career in public health education. You’re already doing it!
As a HOH person, I am always so grateful when someone lowers their mask for me. But I live alone in a city I moved to right before covid so I have literally had almost no human communication for almost 2 years that I can easily understand. Some deaf/HOH people who have not had such a drastic change in lifestyle prefer writing and are upset by removal of your mask. My doctor wore a transparent mask for my appointment and sat right next to me so I could watch her face, and I loved it. It think at this point in the pandemic it's fine to just ask each person. We've had a lot of time to think about this one, lol. Thank you for your concern!
@@Laura-eg2uw Thanks for the reply. I don’t meet too many HOH individuals at the clinic, but now I’m sure to keep a spare pad of paper and always ask for their preference before removing my mask. The long term social effects are still yet to be seen, but please make any recommendations you can. I’ll be glad when one day we can all throw away our masks.
I am going to learn sign language 🤟🏻
I'm not fully deaf like I can hear 45 or 60% voice, I guess it's quite serious and I am wearing hearing aids too.
During the pandemic, online classes are always the worst for me. because I'm living in a rented house and I have a housemate and kind too. I couldn't hear clearly when I am on the earphones. It causes communication problems between me and people, even in the presentation when panels ask me a question. Sometimes the lecturer is impatient with me.
One time, I have opened my speaker for online classes wearing hearing aids too, the lecturer hears my voice repated twice or even more when I'm speaking, asks me to turn off the speaker because it is too noisy then only speak to her/him. The question is If I turned it off how can I communicate with them without hearing the answer from??
I've always muted myself in lectures. I explained my reason, but still, they want me to turn it off. While they asking me, she/he knows my problem. I feel embarrassed myself in front of 80+ students, no one speaks for me. I feel they are mean to me. It's hurtful.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Question: I notice a lot of sign language speakers make some mouth movements as they sign. Is it still easier to understand signs when you're mouth is covered? Or is some stuff lost during signing when the mouth is covered?
i'm just a (very new!!) asl student but i do know some signs have a major glossary(?) difference without the mouth morpheme-- for example iirc the sign for "LATER" is "NEVER EVER" when combined with the "TH" mouth morpheme-- huuuuuge difference if that's missed!
I'm hearing. I know the signs for large and very large, and the signs for far and very far have different mouth movements. I wonder if those mouth movements are seen through the mask.
Yep I have that problem even though I am hoh and even at work I wear these pins to let customers and co workers know I am HOH so they need to speak up clearly to me 2
I am fully hearing & I too get frustrated with the masks.
Ever since I've been self-taught ASL, I am trying to teach myself to also lip read & when people talk to me, I look at their lips.
Since the mask mandate (which is thankfully over now, except the select few who still WEAR masks). I find the mask even muffles the sound & even when I work as a receptionist people wear masks & I sit behind a plastic window, just makes things all that more complicated.............
I wish MORE people in the world knew sign language, so I can practice on them & also know better what they are saying instead of their mumbling mask voice.
SO happy to see this message!! Please, please, don't do that dismissive swat with your hand if we say we can't hear you with your mask. If you thought it was important enough to tell the people who can understand you through your mask, then you thought it was important enough for anyone. So DO THE WORK to help me understand, or lower your mask. I'm tired of the "hearing person swat".
I know this is an old video, but it's something I've been worrying about since the pandemic started. I'm hearing, and don't actually know anyone who's deaf, but even though mask mandates have dropped, I still wear one because I'm terrified of accidentally catching and giving covid to family members and friends who would likely be seriously ill or dead if they catch it, despite vaccines.
That said, no one has told me that they're deaf and need to lip read or anything...the most I've gotten is customers saying they're slightly hard of hearing so I speak up a bit, and feel like that's such an inadequate response. But I don't know what I can actually do if someone tells me that they don't understand because they can't hear... would writing be the best choice in that case?
Lowering the mask as you step back usually helps a ton. However, if the person doesn’t lip read, writing is awesome 👍
i have autism and idk know how it needs me too read lips- i can hear-
I love to watch this channel because it helps me to learn ASL. I do have a question if anyone is able to answer: It looks like the one man changes his dominant hand for signs frequently. Is there a reason for this? I know when he signs walks away he uses a different hand then finger spelling for example. Is this just because he has more room on the side and doesn’t want to hit the lady? Let me know ❤
If everybody used sign language to communicate, the pandemic would be over in less than 2 weeks.
I have hearing and I have noticed that I have been struggling to hear people because of the masks. It makes me wonder if I have some hearing loss that I wasn't aware of.
I am losing some hearing and there are some people I can’t hear. It happened in hospital when talking to Dr. heard nothing at all. He did step back and removed mask to talk. Happened also at chick-fil-a. I had to look at my wife to answer the clerk. Also there was so much noise I couldn’t here her soft pitch voice
oh my god even mask goes over the ears with us its try not to let your hearing aid goes flying when you take the mask off i can relate so well to this. its hard because people are like you can hear why cant you hear what im saying well the mask is putting up a barrier. but in these times hard of hearing and deaf people need to stick together. we cannot hear you behind the masks it would be great if you could write what you are saying down or even if you know signs langue thats even better.
Get a rubber band and tie the two things that go be hind you ear together and but it on the back of ur head ^^
I made masks that tie behind the head like the old school white cloth surgical masks you see in old movies so they don't pull on my hearing aids and if a place that requires their masks doesn't have ones that tie I refuse to change masks due to possible damage to my hearing aids. So far no one has argued with that as I'm still masked and they can't accommodate my disability needs for a different style.
I know this issue because of my grandmother. She constantly complains because the mask is interfering with her hearing aids.
Do you think it is getting any better? I have seen a lot of government press conferences with interpreters but I would love to know if they are actually accurate and helpful.
We the Deaf tribe really 😎
I love this! I am hard of hearing and I rely heavily on lip reading. Masks have made conversations and public interactions extremely difficult. Thank you for calling attention to this!!
I remember working in the restaurant during lockdown one time when my server friend pulled me over to help her out with a deaf table. They were trying to sign to her what they wanted and pointed too. She would look where they pointed and would start talking… with the mask covering her face.
I was just like, “really???” And so was the deaf table. Clearly frustrated, they looked at me. I signed a couple questions, they answered, I’d tell the server, and she’d talk back to them with the mask covering. I literally had to tell her, “they don’t know what you’re saying because they can’t see your mouth.” To which one of the deaf people nodded his head slowly, like, “yessss. Exactly,” after reading my lips. (I pulled down my mask to help them understand me since I only knew keywords for the most part)
Still makes me SMH how common sense goes out the window for ppl when a language barrier occurs.
I'm hearing and work cash register at a local deli. My ASL is awful (it's technically my first language as I have autism and didn't speak until very late in life, but I haven't used it regularly since I was six years old, so I'm very rusty), but we have a Deaf regular who really struggled to communicate, so I ended up acting as an impromptu interpreter. I felt so embarrassed trying to understand and sign to him - I knew I was signing like a kindergartner. But what really made me embarrassed and angry was the way my hearing coworkers, none of whom could sign, treated him. He would come in and try to order a sandwich, and one coworker in particular would always talk to him like he was a three-year-old and roll her eyes when he couldn't understand her. Some hearing people have absolutely zero empathy or shame. They have no problem shaming Deaf people for not speaking, but at the same time they feel no shame for not signing. People will even stare and whisper when I sign to customers, like I'm doing something wrong. It makes my blood boil.
i have found out since covid started just how bad my hearing really was and now that i don't have the ability to see faces / lips move as much how much information i am NOT getting. In the last 2 years my hearing has also gotten worse trying to get help adjusting to the change in my life is a real pain in the ***. most of the resources in my area are shut down and the ones on most social media groups i find are more about social justice warrior statements. I can barely understand my own child now my hearing is getting so bad and cant afford hearing aids at the moment so trying to learn basic ASL (letters to start) and educating a 5 year old child as well as my 30+ year old managers that you need to at least face me i have a very hard time understanding you has mentally worn me down so much. I work customer service and daily i get yelled at because i cant understand what is being said. :(
My peaceful comment wasn't allowed to post. ☹️
I am filled with uncertainty with all those Deaf people’s respond. They are Deaf, I am Deaf and one thing, I don’t understand, why are you making it harder on yourselves ? It’s a like a blind man trying to see something that he or she will never see. Why are you bothered with those Hearing people who actually doesn’t care about us , when they do not acknowledge our deafness l acknowledged our struggles and suffering because of their foolishness to NOT provide accessibility for us. Please Deaf people, stop wasting your time trying to hear them, we are Deaf ! Like it or not. I am not interested in your speech skills, your so called hearing skills. We are going through a crisis of acceptance from others and self acceptance. Why? Because we allowed them to do that to us! Stop, protect yourself and walk away. Only an idiot will try and make it easy fir others to understand you, because you’re so insecure and you can’t speak! For goodness sake, embrace sign language and show the beauty of our body language, expression and sign ! Show off! We are blessed 😇 it’s time to show them, we don’t have time for their lack of education, lack of awareness and stupidity.
This is why you can’t mandate something for absolutely everyone. The world is not black and white
omg. I never thought of this. I never wear a mask (im a human, humans dont need them to live.) I knew it was a real problem for kids. They also need to see faces to learn social cues. Again, never thought of how this affected deaf people. They need to understand that this just cant be the way we live going forward. Enough is enough.