Speech and Hearing
By Dave
July 9th, 2008 | Leave a comment
My wife is a speech pathologist, and so thanks to her, I have more exposure to the Deaf community than I think I otherwise would have. That’s Deaf with a capital D, which is different from someone who is deaf.
That capital D brings with it a world of meaning. The Deaf community can be insular, and believes that there’s nothing wrong with being deaf, and its members shouldn’t try to learn to speak or have hearing aids. They don’t want to be “fixed” by the medical and speech communities.
Sean and his family struggle with this in Feathers. How do you celebrate something that sets you apart so obviously from society and that can cause such feelings of isolation, especially as a tween? Sean was very lucky his family all learned sign language; many families elect to get hearing aids and push their deaf children to learn to speak.
Perhaps we should all try and celebrate who we are, even if it does make things harder sometimes.
— Chuck Bowen, on Feathers.
