NORMAL LIFE: Silence Is Golden

As a deaf person, you naturally learn to live without the ability to hear. You have to. Every now and then, I'm reminded of how lucky I am to have my Cochlear Implant. Often, I see groups of deaf people conversing with their hands, their fingers and very gestures conveying their very thoughts through a unique method of communication.

Since my implantation, however, I am neither deaf nor am I hearing, but not much has changed for I have always been a bit 'in-the-middle'. You see, over the years, I had never really fully relied on any kind of sign language to communicate; instead, I perfected my lipreading skills which, from time-to-time, kick in even now.

Within the deaf community, cochlear implant users are often regarded with contempt, for these people use technology to 'change the way they were intended'. Many people in the deaf community actually consider the technology to be a threat to their sub-culture and, therefore, their very existence. Just like the black community or the gay community reacts defensively when a black person or a gay person is attacked, deaf people see the implantation of 'one of their own' to be, in effect, an attempt to wipe them out and reduce their numbers.

This contempt was also evident the other day when I visited the bank to report a problem with my cash card. As I waited for service, this guy kept giving me odd looks, his eyebrows raised as if to say 'who the hell are you?'. I ignored him, but it wasn't until he went to the cashier when it was his turn that he started communicating with his hands. Suddenly, his contemptuous, snidy looks made sense; this insecurity is indeed a global phenomenon within the deaf community.

Later in the day, whilst sunbathing at the outdoor pool, I got annoyed with the mass of children who had descended on the place. They are so bloody noisy, I thought to myself. But no problem - I could just switch off by removing my hearing device and could delve even deeper into the book I am currently reading, a review of which will be featured here shortly.

So, the next time a hearing person considers the lack of hearing to be a considerable disadvantage, they should think again. Like with book-keeping, in every entry there's a debit and a credit. The same is with disabilities - a disability might be considered a negative thing as a whole but, at times, it can have its benefits.