Video Transcript: 5 Things Deaf People Want You To Know
FATIMA: Hello, everyone. My name is Fatima and I’m hard of hearing, and this vlog is about myths that people have about deafness. I will tell you the five most important things to know.
So, number one, lip-reading. Some deaf people are very skilled with lip reading, but some are not. But for me personally, I'm not fluent with lip reading because I normally understand most of the sentence but some of the words are missing so I tend to fill those missing words in my own words so my brain will understand what the story is and what has been said. And the reason why is because of how people pronounce the words, like... "Pat." "Bat." "Cat." Pat, bat, cat. They all look alike in how the lips move. You know, how their lip patterns are the same. So that's why I struggle with that.
Secondly, however, around 90% of all Deaf people were born to hearing parents and will have hearing children as well. That's what we call CODA, Children Of Deaf Adult. The other 10% of deafness, that is genetic and some deaf people do have deaf children. Also, many have technology to help them to understand what's happening around them. For example, for a baby crying, a light device will blink. Or when they sleep, they can have a vibrating alarm clock so they can feel it, not hear it, feel it. And when the doorbell is being pressed the dog will bark or the light will flash. It depends on the Deaf people and their own way. You can't expect they're all the same. So they are able to understand what's happening around them.
Thirdly, people who are deaf don't all get benefits from having hearing aids or a cochlear implant. This is because there are three different types of hearing loss... Moderate, like 1% hearing loss. Severe hearing loss. Profound hearing loss. Those three are based on how much hearing loss deaf people have. Mostly, some technologies won't help people who are profoundly deaf. You know what I mean? Some deaf people won't think... Some deaf people think it won't help them to hear.
Fourth, there are over 70 different international sign languages all over the world. Interesting, right? They are incredibly different from what we expect. Because, for example... Mexico, "¿Cómo estás?" America, "How are you?" See the big difference? Normally when Deaf people get together with other Deaf people who do not speak their language, they have a ton of practice by making them understand and be able to draw on this experience to communicate and better understand what is happening around them by using gesture or facial expression. Like, "Aha!", you trade the words.
Lastly, if I don’t like something but I had never tried something or experienced it before. For example... Some people say they hate ice cream, but they have never tried it before. Would you, I'm asking you, would you like to experience something in order to know what you don’t like about it? So that's why hearing people have to experience what deaf people see through a lot. So they have to try it or experience it before. So deaf people have been involved in both worlds and seen struggles facing a lot of... Overcoming obstacles. And thank you so much to everybody watching this vlog and I hope you guys have a great day or night. Either way.
Please like and comment and share if you highly agree with this vlog and my five different myths. Have a great day, bye!
