International Week of the Deaf

Today starts International Week of the Deaf.  Apparently Deaf History Month started in the middle of March.  Ah, well, better late than never.  Deaf History Month was started by the National Association of the Deaf in 1997 to celebrate the accomplishments of Deaf individuals.

Most of us probably know that Ludwig von Beethoven, the magnificent composer, was deaf.  I am sure we all are aware of Helen Keller!  Did you know about these individuals are or were deaf?

Nanette Fabray, an actress from when I was a child and teen in the 1960s-70s.  She was the one who made me realize how easily misunderstood lipreading can be.  She appeared on an afternoon talk show and, to demonstrate, she said a short sentence without using her voice.  I thought she said “I love you” and so did the audience.  Wrong!  She was saying “I’ll have a few.”

Is it widely known that Thomas Edison was deaf?  So was Juliette Low, founder of the Girl Scouts.  Kitty O’Neill, speed racer from the 1970s: deaf.  

When I was a secretary at Gallaudet University in 1978, one of our lawyers was Bob Mather, a Deaf man.  There are Deaf doctors, Deaf CEOs, Deaf Almost Any Occupation You Can Think Of.  Deaf people can do anything, especially with the technology that allows them to communicate with others without needing a phone.  In movies or on TV?  Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, Linda Bove (Sesame Street), Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk).  There are hundreds of Deaf people who have made contributions in all fields of endeavor.

Sports fans, do you know where baseball signals and football huddles originated?  With Deaf athletes!  The backstory about the huddle is that when Deaf teams played each other, opposing teams could see what play was being planned from across the field.  And so, one player grouped his teammates into the huddle so he could freely sign the play without the other team seeing what it was.  Similarly, that’s how baseball signals were developed.

One of the silly questions people have asked me about my parents:  how can they dance if they don’t hear music?  Well, the answer is that there is such a thing as “residual hearing” which means that even a profoundly deaf person can hear something.  Even if not for that, Deaf people can feel the vibrations from music.  My parents were beautiful dancers, lovely to watch them float across the floor.  In 2016, Nyle DiMarco won in the TV competition, Dancing With The Stars.  Yes, he is deaf.

When I was a KODA (kid of Deaf adults) I was asked a lot of questions about my parents.  Other kids would ask me out of curiosity and I could understand when the question was dumb.  They just needed to be educated.  I was totally taken aback when adults asked many of the same questions.

Q.  How can your parents drive a car if they can’t hear horns and ambulances?

A.  They had three mirrors on the car: both sides and in the middle.  Deaf drivers tend to be much more alert because they are continually scanning all the mirrors for something unexpected.

Q.  So why is it against the law for me to wear headphones while I drive?

A.  Because you aren’t as attentive to your surroundings, sorry, and do you have 3 mirrors?

 

Q.  How can your parents get up in the morning if they can’t hear the clock?

Q.  How could your parents hear you crying when you were a baby?

Q.  How can they hear the doorbell?  Or the phone?

A.  Flashing lights that go off when the alarm goes off/baby cries/doorbell or phone rings

 

Q.  Do your parents know how to read?

A.  Come on.  Really?

 

Q.  How can they buy a car/a house?

A.  Same way hearing people can.  By reading and signing contracts.

 

Q.  Do your parents speak English?

A.  Not well.  They were fluent in American Sign Language, which is NOT English.  It has its own grammatical rules, syntax, and idioms.

Q.  Oh, I thought sign language was just abbreviated English.

A.  Nope.  It’s taught as a foreign language in a lot of high schools and colleges now.  Many states recognize American Sign Language as a foreign language.   

Q.  How could your parents have kids?

A.  (trying not to laugh) Same way any person can have kids.

Yes, someone really did ask me that.