Personal Narrative: My Experience With The Deaf

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Over hundreds of years, the deaf have surpassed criticism, dubiousness, and many rights that hearing people had that they did not. Through great controversy with the hearing the deaf were able to interject themselves into the hearing world over many years. Deaf went through a time when they were known as ‘retards’ and put in asylums for their hearing disabilities. But when sign language was finally discovered by Thomas Gallaudet and brought to the united states by both him and Laurent Clerc, the deaf became better understood. But, it took many years for the Deaf to earn the reverence they have today. The Deaf have never been given as many responsibilities as the hearing. Until the early nineteenth century, few deaf were trusted to hold jobs In my past experiences with the Deaf I have come to realize how appreciative the Deaf are. They know that in the hearing world they are known as disabled. Few of us hearing people will put forth the effort to understand them. But, when we do they love it and that is what gives me such passion for sign language. I have had several Deaf come into my work to place orders and almost every time they have an order written out and just hand it to me, thinking I am just another one of those people who sees them as disabled. But they are not disabled. Matter of fact most Deaf are happy being deaf. Sign Language is an art and should be cherished, just as the deaf should be cherished and never looked down upon. They have their own world and are happy. Just because there world is smaller than ours doesn't mean that they should be looked down upon. One of my favorite memories since I took up sign language was when I had a deaf customer come in and hand me a paper to do his order and I was able to hand it back to him, granted he looked at me like I was crazy for a second, until I signed to him “How are you doing today?” The smile he gave me made my passion for the deaf community grow even more and so did being able to take his order without that piece of paper. He was so happy that I took the time. A HEARING PERSON took the time, to learn his

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