Recently as I was scrolling through the Instagram platform, I saw that September is Deaf Awareness Month. I’ve been meaning to write on this topic. Why? Because awareness develops understanding and fostering understanding can break barriers.

Speaking from experience, I knew nothing about deaf culture or hard of hearing until I myself began to lose my hearing. It was around the age of 11-12 when my hearing started to decline, for some unknown reason. It was a gradual process and for that, I am thankful. There were no hearing impaired students in my school and I’d never seen sign language before I went to college. During high school I learned to lip read and had note takers in my classes. It was during freshman orientation at East Carolina University that I met my first deaf friends and learned the manual alphabet. Little did I know, that was the beginning of learning a second language: sign language. It was a breath of fresh air to finally be able to connect with others with hearing loss and learn sign language.

I did a little search on Google about deaf statistics. You can look this up as well but I’ll share a little of what I found. Did you know, 3.6% of the U.S. population consider themselves deaf or have significant difficulty hearing. (National Deaf Center) Around 1 in 7 Americans have some degree of hearing loss. (National Deaf Center) World wide there are over 300 sign language types with American Sign Language (ASL) being dominant in North America. (avantpage.com) ASL does not follow English word order, it is more conceptual. There is also Pidgin Sign English (PSE) and Signed Exact English (SEE). I personally learned PSE which is a blend of American Sign Language vocabulary with English sentence structure. This is my favorite because being born hearing, my first language was spoken English. I have deaf friends who love ASL which has much more concept. It’s like making a series of pictures with signs but doesn’t follow English word order.

That’s enough statistics for one post. I will say, a good reminder when you see deaf people and interact with them, deafness does not define who they are. Deaf and hard of hearing people are just like you, they just lack the ability to hear and comprehend speech. We are not “less than” anyone else. Nor do we need pity.

Empathy really goes a long way! What do I mean? Try putting yourself in another person’s shoes. Stick some ear plugs in your ears and see how far you can get in the day. You’re likely going to have trouble on the phone and may find FaceTime and texting easier. You will likely have great difficulty understanding the television. (I personally never watch it. With the combination of my hearing loss and low vision, it makes for a very frustrating activity to attempt reading closed captions on a tv screen.) Closed caption is great for those with hearing loss who can read. You might have difficulty communicating in public with the everyday people you encounter in stores, restaurants, schools, churches etc. Speaking of churches, in all the surrounding area of where I live outside of Charlotte NC, I only know of one church with sign language interpreters. ONE!!! That is a big problem that really needs to be addressed. Less than 2% of the world deaf population are followers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That makes the deaf one of the largest unreached and unengaged groups worldwide. https://gacx.io/articles/deaf-unreached-people Now think of all the mission groups that are sent every year world wide, which is wonderful, but hear me out, deaf people need to be engaged with learning the Gosspel as well. Me and my husband visited two churches in the area during the past year. Both are great churches where the Bible is clearly taught. Neither of them offer any services for the hearing impaired. It was a very frustrating time for me when trying to grasp some meaning. (Having low vision doesn’t help either. It makes seeing power points impossible.) I would leave those services discouraged not uplifted and equipted. I was raised in church and am very familiar with the Bible. My daily relationship with Jesus is of most importance to me. A couple of years ago I led a Bible study with my deaf friends. It was not easy because deaf people can have lower reading skills. That means they can have difficult with the Bible study book and reading the Bible itself. With the combination of my hearing limitation and low vision, I ended up memorizing the lessons so I could clearly help them understand. They were so hungry for the Word of God! There are a few key points to learn here. First off, if you have deaf children, it is vital that they learn to read so they can more easily interact in the world. Second, advocacy for resources for the hearing impaired is vital. Those who can hear can easily listen to sermons and worship songs that equip you for life. The deaf don’t have these luxuries. I’ve had people ask me why I don’t go to Sunday School at church. Well, that would require a translator so I could participate. It is also taxing on my eyes to watch signing at length, so one service is sufficient for me along with my personal study of the Bible . (When my deaf girlfriends have hours long talks and lunch, when I’m finally home, my eyes and mind are exhausted from watching signing for long lengths of time.) Just a little perspective.

Like I said easily, empathy goes A LONG WAY. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes and really think about what it would be like with their limitations. You’d be surprised that not many people take the time for such reflection. It’s mind blowing. Perspective!! I’ve discovered there are many reels on Instagram with deaf people teaching short signing lessons. Very short. It is a fun way to learn. The manual Alphabet is also an easy tool you can use to interact with hearing impaired people. You can finger spell words. You can also use your phone to type a short message and show them. (That personally doesn’t work for me because I can’t see the font on an iPhone but for most people, that works.). As you begin to understand the needs around you, you can make little attempts to show compassion. Today after church a sweet lady came up and introduced herself. She was learning some basic signs and made the effort to connect. That meant a lot. Compassion goes a long way.

I think I will wrap it up for now. It’s been well over a week since I’ve blogged. It may be the first week in over five years that I didn’t post a blog. The past week was busy. Hopefully I will stay consistent with sharing. I know this particular blog has been a bit different. Awareness brings understanding though. If it helps break a few barriers for the hearing impaired community, it’s well worth sharing. Have an amazing week.

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