Common Misconceptions About Deaf People and Their Abilities

Photo is mine.

I have been involved in deaf community in more than 12 years, and through my observations towards them, I noticed there are lots of misconceptions about deaf people, their community, and their abilities. Based on how I see people looks at them and how they were misconceived, here are some of those perceptions that needs to be debunked.

• Deaf people lacks the ability
  I don't get it when hearing people looks at deaf people as they have no or lesser abilities. In fact, these deaf people has abilities and skills that most hearing people doesn't have. They have talents to share. They can drive vehicles. They can repair appliances even without proper education. They can do a lot of things! It seems what they are lacking from their senses went to the skills and abilities they have. If you think only hearing people can gossip, deaf people can gossip to. They do normal things like we hearing people does.

• All deaf people can understand what you write or what they read
  Many people thinks writing and reading is a common way to communicate with them. I once assisted a deaf person for a check up. The doctor said it's difficult to communicate even she is writing what she wants the deaf person to know during their initial check up. I explained it to them that writing for the deaf to read is not as simple as we think it is. Many of them do not understand the grammar that we have as it was common here in the Philippines. There are some deaf people who had higher education, and those are the ones who can understand SEE (Signing Exact English), but majority of deaf people do not understand what we are trying to tell them in our (hearing people) own grammar.

• Sign Language in every country are the same
  Other hearing people thinks sign language is the universal language of deaf people. Well, it's different. Every country has their own sign language. Also, it can be regional as well. For example, in a province or state has some signs that they use that other deaf people from different province or state signs differently.
  Others also think that every language or dialect has different language. Absolutely not! It can also by country or region.

• Deaf people can understand you if they have hearing aid
  I have a lot of deaf friends who once used hearing aids. If you think it feels good for them to have it, it's not! According to my deaf friend, it is painful to their ears so they decided to remove it. I even tried to talk to him in English, he doesn't understand me. It's because he didn't hear those words when he was younger even he can understand those words when reading. He can understand the words more by reading and not from hearing.

• Deaf couple can have deaf kids
  People asks me if deaf couples will have deaf kids. I debunked that misconception of them. In fact, I have never seen deaf couple which had deaf kids. True, there are moms or dads which has deaf kids. But their husband or wife os deaf.

• Deaf people are automatically mute
  Some of them were, but some of them are not. There are deaf people that can talk but they are not doing it for shyness. Though, some of them are partially deaf.