Today was one of those beautiful late summer days in the Northwest--a perfect 80 degrees. I drove around with sunroof and all the windows open listening to my Lonesome Dove CD and the volume cranked way up, my leg pressed against the driver's side door, so I could feel the vibrations of the music as I drove.
Track one starts out with the most sublime french horn solo ever, and I can still hear it, because I still have my low tones. It gives me chills. I live a little bit in the country outside of the Seattle-metro area. On a nice day like this wherever I drive there are mountains in the distance. The country roads where I live are full of green pastures, horses, bright yellow wildflowers and barns. Soon I will have my laptop fixed so I'll be able to upload my own pics to my blog. By that time the weather will turn crappy.
I am feeling so hopeful about the future and the possibility of hearing music again in its entirety someday, if or when I qualify for a cochlear implant. OK-- I know music will never be perfect--but better!! I'm trying hard not to get my hopes up too high because the main focus should be on communication.
I have been arguing with someone about whether or not audism exists. This is an interesting question. People have occasionally been verbally abusive to be because of my hearing loss, but the vast majority have been kind. I have always assumed those who were discourteous were simply rude people.
As someone who is late-deafened and a WASP, it never occurred to me I might ever be a victim of some sort of discrimination. Now with blatant examples of audist behavior in the news, I'm not so sure.
My argument that audism exists would be:
A) the rude behavior experienced by many deaf people. Other disabled people do not seem to be targets of similar abuse.
B) lack of accommodations in public places like movie theaters, live theaters and hotels, even though equal access has been mandated by federal ADA laws.
C) lack of adequate accommodations in the work place and under-employment of the deaf.
So far the argument against--
A) My spellchecker doesn't believe audism is a word. But that's OK. I'm not sure blog is a word.
In fact, I wonder if spellchecker is a word?
See Paotie and Ridor for two very different points of view. What do YOU think? Have YOU experienced audism? Have you experienced ANY kinds of isms? Do you get very tired of blond jokes? I do too! How about "over 50" jokes?? Aren't those the worst?!
The picture above was painted by Chuck Baird. It's called "Bird of Paradise."
13 comments:
I don't think the spell checker argument is a strong one against Audism, KW. My spell checker misses a lot of words that my dictionary says are quite real.:-)
I have never suffered Audism, but I have suffered discrimination both as a woman and also because of my age, but not the kind most people associate with ageism--I was too young.
I had a customer think I was "slow" when I didn't hear something he said. That infuriated me!!!
Cindy
http://beethovensears.com
Kim ..
I must profess your claims that the loopholes contained within the ADA were a direct result of "audism" shocked me. I'd like to know how you arrived at that conclusion.
I posted a blog yesterday to address the ADA's shortcomings. You will find that SEVERAL other disability groups also have problems with the ADA. These groups have little in common with deaf/hoh groups - other than the common denominator: disabilities.
And I am slowing being reminded why I preferred to stick with disability advocacy groups, rather than deaf/hoh groups. Too many deaf/hoh people end up being professional victims.
That is why I ask you whether you want to be a victim or not. If you think you have it bad, try explaining that to the mother of one of my former students: her daughter was born without ears AND eyes. And her daughter was beautiful, smart and even had a great sense of personality.
I hope one day that you can remove yourself from the professional victims that exist within deaf/hoh communities and start to appreciate yourself for who you are - not what you were, or what you're missing, or what you're entitled to.
Help for the ADA is on the Way
:)
Paotie
Hi Kim ..
I came across this posting while scanning Deafread.com. It made me think of you, and so I thought to send it your way. Maybe it's something worth checking out.
:)
Paotie
ASL Online Classes.
Hello Bookish Kitty-- I'm sorry you suffered age discrimination. None of us gets off the hook. I have suffered discrimination as a woman and a blond before too. REALLY! Also, local people have made assumptions about me based on where I live. I'll give you a clue-- the ASL sign is "snob" + the first initial of my town. During my last job interview I was asked about my greatest accomplishment. I could have listed several things, but I'm most proud of my ability to live a normal life, meeting the daily challenges of living with a disability. It isn't a small accomplishment. Any time you overcome a hurdle of discrimination where you don't fit into the norm-- whether it's because you appear too young-- maybe because you're gifted? Or whether you have some kind of physical deformity that repels people--it gives us insight and builds character. This is how I've learned to put disability in perspective.
Hi Cindy-- That happens to me too. Sometimes it takes a second to fill in the blanks I didn't hear. With the 10 db drop I lost that much more. It hurts my feelings when patrons get so abusive. I've had two very rude patrons not long ago. What hurt the most is I told them I was very hard-of-hearing. One asked me WHY I was working then, as if I should be a shut-in. He refused to look at me when he spoke and continued to badger me. With the other, she kept turning away each time she spoke so I couldn't read her lips. I asked her three times to look at me because I was Hoh. She finally got right in my face and shouted, "I'm yelling at the top of my lungs-- what the F--K do ya want me to do here?" I said, ". . . if you would just look at me like I asked, you don't need to yell." Then she stomped off. There are some really angry people out there. If this isn't audism, I don't know what to call it because it sure felt like someone hated me because I couldn't hear. I have a hard time imagining these same two people doing the same thing to a blind person-- but I might be wrong. I've never been blind.
Paotie,
Thanks for the ASL link. This will be helpful to my husband.
Paotie,
As for the loopholes in the ADA, again I am making comparisons between my experiences as a hotel and theater patron. I have never been in a hotel or theater since the ADA was passed that didn't offer wheelchair accommodations. Yet, we both know theaters were given an excemption not to comply with equal access because the movie industry argued "hardship"
Further, more often than not, hotels have no clue what a "deaf ADA kit" is even though they are supposed to supply 1) captioned TVs, 2) telephone access-- i.e. TTY, amplified phones 3) alerts for fire fighters that deaf people are in the room 4) vibrating deaf alarm clock.
I don't consider myself a victim unless someone fails to comply with the law. I agree most the time failure to comply is because of ignorance of the law-- which is a result of federal failure to educate public businesses of their need to do so.
Movie theaters aren't in violation of the law-- because the law was written to exclude the deaf from equal access to begin with.
I am quite sure the blind and handicapped have other issues as well. I can't fight their battles, though I applaud all disabled people in their efforts to gain equal access.
I can never ever honestly say I've experienced or remembered people who treated me badly because of my hearing loss. I wouldn't use the word "audism" but rather it'd be a case of utter ignorance or misunderstanding if it ever happened. I experienced more of the "Deafism" aspect more than anything else before just because I prefer to speak and not sign.
Hi Mike,
I've run into that too. Curiously a HEARING ASL teacher in my community once reamed me out for lip-reading and oralism instead of using ASL. Clearly she didn't understand the term LATE-DEAFENED. I've been surrounded by hearing people my entire life. I have been the only person in my family with a hearing loss, until my husband recently developed Menieres. Were you born deaf or are you late-deaf, not that it matters to me--I'm just curious.
Born with a hearing loss. Yes.
Also, I don't subscribe to the victimization theater ("audism") but rather focus on advocacy and self-empowerment. A bootstrap mentality if you will.
Jason Curry, of sComm, Inc (http://www.scommonline.com ) is an example of that bootstrap mentality where he did something about the communication gap problem. I know him personally (he's deaf) and great friend of mine. He certainly didn't play into this self-pity game but got on the ball and did something about it.
Mike, Yes I know how you feel about advocacy. I've been reading your blog and your comments in both Ridors and Paoties pages. I also believe self-advocacy is the best way to effect change, of course. Public education is key.
Personally, I usually go for humor and kindness when advocating for myself. By and large, it works, but I have run across the occasional creep who just doesn't get it, who doesn't know the laws-- and then I have to be more firm. This has happened when requesting deaf accommodations and once when requesting accommodations for my son for his disability (unrelated to hearing).
I am well-aware other disabled people face discrimination. The deaf are simply ahead of the game because they've coined a term for the discrimination they face-- "audism"
They have a long history of victimization. There are those still alive who remember being shuttled off to mental institutions as children in the 1940s because they were deaf. The majority of non-oral have felt isolated from family who refused to learn ASL. Even I feel that as a late-deafened person. These kinds of things haven't happened to the blind and handicapped so much. Perhaps this is why so many deaf feel victimized?
To deny audism exists is one thing. However, I absolutely agree with you how to handle it. Whining and labeling incidents of audism where it doesn't exist will not help the cause.
Name-calling, critizing each other for personal communication choices does NOT help the deaf cause. I am deaf too-- in a medical sense-- not culturally. But I face the same issues the deaf face every day.
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