How deaf people have no direct access to the services hearing people have

 

 

 

 Imagine living in a world where nobody knows your language and you must use American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter to help communicate with others. In America, deaf people have no direct access to many different things that hearing people do. 

Most deaf people are visual, which is why many deaf people use an American Sign language to communicate. However many hearing people don’t know American Sign Language and often expect them to communicate as quickly as a hearing person. When that assumption is proven to be wrong they would judge deaf people as unintelligent and incapable to do things correctly.  This is why many deaf people have a hard time finding jobs. Fortunately the American with Disabilities Act law which was passed in 1990 helped create easier communication between deaf and hearing individuals by giving deaf people more rights. The employers can no longer discriminate against those who are deaf because deaf people can sue them using ADA law.

Another obstacle that deaf people faced due to lack of communication is when they go to the movie theater and not all movies have closed captions. It is very difficult for deaf people to lipread what the actors or actresses in the movies are saying with the frequent cutaways scenes voice-over, beards, mustaches, fast speakers, cigarette smoking. Some movie theaters would provide a close-caption glasses, however these aren’t great because sometimes the captions are not correct and the glasses are a bit uncomfortable. The best things that the movie theaters could do is provide open captions so that deaf and hearing can both enjoy and understand the movie at the same time.

One of the most common things that deaf people like me have experienced is social isolation. According to Soukup from VeryWell Health, “I knew that most people were not malicious and that communication barriers exist only because of limited exposure to deaf people and a lack of understanding.” Society’s lack of understanding of the deaf community and lack of fluency in ASL to communicate with deaf people makes it challenging for deaf to have social life with hearing people. Social isolation happens to me all the time in my high school. All my hearing classmates didn’t know how to talk to me and were afraid to come up to me. In order for me to make friends with them, I must go up to them and prove that I can talk. I wish that hearing people shouldn’t discriminate against deaf people. Society should have free classes that teach about deaf culture and ASL to hearing people. Those free classes could be taken in schools, colleges, events, and study places. It would be a great way for hearing people to learn about and able to communicate with deaf and prevent social isolation.

The lack of communication between deaf and hearing people, brings many obstacles for the deaf such as being unable to find jobs, not understanding the movies, and facing social isolation. Communication is the key to bring them both together.