We all take sound for granted. I have always wondered what it would be like to never have heard a sound, so I talked to Amy. She is a 25-year-old hearing-impaired student at the local Junior College with long, dark wavy hair, dark blue eyes, and a smile for everyone. Seeing her walk on campus, I saw a confident, self-assured young woman. I would have never guessed she was hearing impaired.
The teacher in my computer class told everyone that Amy was hearing impaired and that she read lips. I was very insecure about approaching Amy. My sign language skills were very low, and I wasn�t sure how I would communicate with her. Then one day she sat beside me in class, tapped me on the arm and pointed to the computer screen, while mouthing the word, �How?� I used a few simple signs I knew and pointed, to let her know what she needed to do. After class, we went to the cafeteria for lunch. She had a notepad ready and whenever we didn�t understand each other we would write down what we were trying to tell each other.
In my conversations with Amy, I told her about my hearing loss, and I asked her how long she had been hearing impaired. She answered, �Since birth,� then she went on to explain that, �As a child I assumed that I was �normal.� I didn�t know I had a hearing impairment until someone told me. I had thought that I was not as smart as other children, or that no one liked me. I hadn�t realized that I was supposed to hear people talking to me.� I understood because I had experienced the same feelings of isolation. Amy went on to say, �When I try to introduce myself to hearing people they ignore me, maybe they�re stuck-up.� She shrugged her shoulders, �I don�t know. Sometimes hearing people might think I�m stuck-up, but I stopped trying to meet them. If someone wants to meet me they can introduce themselves to me.�
�I was enrolled in the School for the Deaf and Blind from the age of five until the age of 18,� Amy told me, �They wouldn�t let me lip-read, because they wanted me to learn sign language.� I was curious as to how she communicated with her family before she learned sign language. She simply stated, �I read their lips and used homemade sign language, such as pointing and gestures.�
�Did your family live close to the school?� I inquired.
�No, I lived in the dorms.� She said with a sad expression, �I would spend holidays, as well as spring and summer break with my family, no weekends or anything else.� She emphasized with a shake of her head, �It was lonely at first, but there were around 300 or 350 students living in the dorms. When I was in sixth grade there were chores, sports and dorm activities to keep me busy. I really enjoyed basketball, volleyball and cheerleading on the weekends.�
I noticed in computer class that Amelia typed faster than I could so I gave her a hard time about it. She said, �I had to learn to type at seven years old, so I could use the TTY.� A TTY is a telephone that has a keyboard and a small screen, so the hearing impaired user can type and read their conversation. �If I want to call someone who doesn�t have a TTY, I have to call the relay then they dial the number I want to call.� The relay is a service that will read the typed message from the hearing impaired to the hearing and type the message to the hearing impaired from the hearing.
Amy shared a disturbing incident with me �Some people don�t understand about sign language. One day I was at the store with some friends, walking around the store signing to each other and a gang member saw us signing,� she wrote, �He must have followed us, because when we left the store to walk home down a road we all felt safe on,� she looked to make sure I was reading, �he shot my friend in the back and the head.� Amy paused for effect, �We saw who shot her, so we told the police and they caught him. The police asked the gang member why he shot my friend. He said that he saw us using sign language and that his rival gang members use sign.� She rolled her eyes, �The police told him that it wasn�t a gang member that he killed, that it was a deaf person and that that was how they talked to each other. The gang member didn�t believe them!� She raised her eyebrows, �How could someone believe that only gang members use sign language?�
The idea that someone�s principle means of communication could cause a death is a very scary thought. �I look around to see if there are gang members in the store, and if there are, and I�m with a hearing person I won�t sign,� Amy explains, �but if I�m with a hearing impaired person I still have to sign, I am just very careful. I can�t let that stop me from talking to my friends.�
I wear a hearing aid so I asked Amy if she ever tried one. She signed, �I had tried hearing aids, but they give me severe headaches. In the country it is okay, sound is like music, a beautiful sound, but in town it is too loud, it hurts.� She had to choose between pain and deafness, knowing that some people would have trouble accepting her in the hearing world with her hearing impairment.
I have had many surgeries to improve my hearing and wondered if surgery would help Amelia. She replied, �It doesn�t help everyone and the cochlear implant is still an experimental procedure; it�s not covered by insurance. Why should I let the doctor cut up my ears, when they look normal? � She said gesturing to her ears, �Besides it would cost a lot of money.�
It is a personal choice on how to deal with a hearing impairment. Some people, like Amy, don�t have much of a choice. Therefore, they do their best to make a life for themselves. They don�t want pity or sympathy. They just want to enjoy life to the fullest, make their own choices, and be treated like anyone else would want.
