"Cultural Diversity" is often used in reference to people of color. However, I submit people with disabilities also represent cultural diversity. The disability I want to address is hearing loss or the hard of hearing (HOH).
According to some statistics, 10% of people have some hearing loss, 25% of people over 50. Many people with hearing loss typically don't talk about it. People know people can be deaf from birth. However, hearing loss (not deafness) is often attributed to age. In our youth-oriented culture, people don't want to admit they have a hearing loss for fear of seeming old.
I talk about my hearing loss and my hearing aids and assistive listening devices liberally, frequently and deliberately. I urge people to take more care (move lips, speak slowly, enunciate, project volume) when they communicate with me. It is the layman's belief people can just learn to read lips. As a member of the hard-of-hearing "community", I have learned that lip- or, more accurately, speech reading is only 30% effective. With my particular hearing loss, many of the consonants fall in the "profoundly deaf" range. Words with hissing sounds like "th", "s", and "f", or words with clicking sounds like "c", "d", "t" are particularly difficult to understand without watching the speaker's lips. And even then, many of the sounds I need to hear are "buried" inside the mouth. For example, "sleet" and "sleek" look exactly the same to the Deaf or hard-of-hearing observer.
I've lost track of the husbands, wives and friends of HOH people: "Can you please tell my {loved one} to get / wear hearing aids?" I've learned that often it's the loved ones who benefit most from HOH people getting / wearing hearing aids. HOH people don't realize the drain they put on loved ones to interpret / repeat. "What did they say?" At a Self Help for the Hard of Hearing (SHHH) conference, a hearing wife got to spend time away from her HOH husband. She said it was like a vacation, not to have to translate and repeat for him.
In studying American Sign Language (ASL) at SPSCC last quarter, I learned about "Deaf Culture". The Deaf have a subculture all their own. People may be given "sign names", but only by people already accepted in that culture. When I learned about this, it made me wonder about the idea of Deaf Culture, and whether it creates a separation. My concern is that the Deaf community isolates itself.
I also learned that associating Deafness as a handicap is no longer politically correct. It's based on a medical model. I confess to having had difficulty comprehending why one would not call a deaf person "handicapped". I had to work on this a while. As I started to work through this in my mind, I realized every human being is "differently-abled". Indeed, it is often discussed that there really is no such thing as "normal". In addition to my hearing aids, I also wear glasses. Am I, therefore, doubly handicapped?
In ASL, I learned a little about the laws that have been passed regarding people with handicaps and disabilities. Although I have been aware of ADA for some time, and reap some of the benefits as I have a captioner in my Chemistry class, I was unaware of how far-reaching these laws are.
The hard of hearing don't seem to have a culture. I am continually frustrated by this lack as I seek ways to help me understand and comprehend in my classes and the "real world". For years, I have been seeking programs or classes to help me learn how to speech read better. At the same time, I yearn for a nurturing environment where I could talk freely about my hearing loss and get instruction and encouragement, and have a feeling of camaraderie that comes with associating with similar people.
If The Evergreen State College doesn't already recognize the hard of hearing as a subculture, I believe it should. I am including with this application an email I prepared in support of disability services in the Community Colleges' 2006 supplementary budget. I am also including a web page I created while taking ASL where I requested other HOH people to share their experiences (and difficulties) learning ASL. I share them with you as examples of how I believe I could assist TESC in achieving its commitment to diversity.
With warm regards, Janis Aaron Moore