Abolishing Deaf Myths!

Instructions

Hey there! I am a Deaf scratcher. My last project seemed to pique quite a bit of interest. So alas, here I am again. So, today I will be discussing today is a few commonly asked questions that I get by hearing people! 1: Do you read lips? Okay. This is a common one. Yes. I do, I read them quite well. However, it is an extremely draining task. I prefer to sign but will accommodate to people I've only just met. 2: If you can read lips, why should I learn Sign? Haha. This goes hand in hand, kinda. So... ASL and English aren't the same language at all. It's hard to learn English and even sometimes when my brain is really fried, it's hard to remember it. I don't really expect my hearing friends to learn Sign, but it is nice when I see my friends or family attempting to learn my language. It shows you truly care, and honestly, it's the gesture that counts. 3. So. You can feel vibrations? Ha. I get asked this so much. People hearing stories about "super Deaf people" who use vibrations to navigate the world. Yes, I can feel vibrations. But so can you. Everyone can. Am I more aware of them? Idk. Maybe? Do I rely on them? Heck no. 4. Aren't Deaf people really good at music? Lol, no. I mean- some are. My mom out me in band, I played French horn. The idea was that I could identify notes by different vibrations. Did I enjoy the class? Sure. It was cool. Was I good? Heck no. I'm only human. Making music just isn't my thing. 5. Do Deaf people like music? Do hearing people? Exactly. It changes from person to person. I, personally, love music. I adore looking at different lyrics. Feeling different beats. I usually listen with headphones on and closed captions on. Idk how you people hear it, but I think it's pretty snazzy. 6. How much can you hear? Okay. Funny story. You'd think this is an obvious answer, right? No. People just don't seem to get it. I can't really answer that. Like sure, I could repeat what my audiologist says, but that's not what these people want. Just... Ask yourself, how much can /you/ hear. If you've never had anything else to compare your hearing to, how could you answer this question? 7. If you could "fix" your ears, would you? Ofc not. There's nothing that needs to be fixed. There's times where yeah, being Deaf sucks. But that's life. I'm extremely proud of who I am and wouldn't change it for anything. To put this in perspective that the majority of the readers will understand, if someone asked you whether you would "fix your sexuality to straight, would you?", Your answer would most likely be similar to mine. (Ofc there are exceptions with people, this carries for the Deaf part too. Some people would do anything to hear like the rest of the world. But most wouldn't) 8. Do you eavesdrop on people a lot? This goes for watching people sign from a distance, to reading lips from a distance. I... Don't? I mean- sometimes. Idk. I'm human, guys. Reading lips are a distance is extremely hard, btw. So, I'd say for the most part I don't. But like, common decency exists too? 9. Do deaf people laugh. I get asked this a lot, actually. Yeah. We laugh. Do you expect us to finger spell "ha ha ha ha"? Or maybe sign "funny" over and over again? 10. Can deaf people drive? Yeah. Most of us can. In fact, our peripheral vision is way better than most hearing peoples, despite statistics saying deafies shouldn't drive, we're actually some of the safest drivers around (in my biased opinion)