Give Me a Sign

by Anna Sortino

What people don’t understand is that when I’m wearing my hearing aids, there’s still a lot that I miss. And without them, there’s still a lot I could catch by relying on lipreading and deductive reasoning.

But we have hearing parents, and like most other deaf and hard of hearing kids, we’ve been raised with the goal of being hearing-passing.

It’s such a beautiful language. And it’s so special to be able to help deaf people.”

This made me cackle iykyk 😂

“So you’re hearing impaired?” “Hard of hearing,” I correct her, though I also dislike this preferred terminology. It feels so medical and outdated, more suited for the elderly than for someone as young as I am. There’s also a misconception among hearing people that these terms mean my hearing loss isn’t significant and that simply shouting could do the trick, which is far from accurate. Therefore, I primarily use “hard of hearing” only when I’m worried about not being “deaf enough” to use “Deaf.” Because my hearing falls short of a profound ninety decibels, some might argue that the severe loss isn’t diagnostically deaf, making me feel like I have to watch my step with my own identity.

Often, when people are inspired by disabilities, what they’re really thinking is Wow, I’m so glad that’s not my life.

“A cochlear implant doesn’t fix everything. It’s a surgical procedure after which I had to train my brain how to hear the world. My hearing isn’t magically restored the same as a hearing person’s.”