Impact Of Audism On Audism

ASL for me has had a really positive impact on my life. My father, who is roughly 65, has experienced quite a bit of hearing loss due to his age. He can’t really hear most of what I say and I do whatever I can to lower the pitch a speak from my diaphragm in order to get him to hear me. My mother has had an easier time with this and is able to communicate everything to him that he can’t hear. Honestly it’s be heartbreaking that he can’t hear me say “I love you,” sometimes. This communication barrier drove me to learn sign. While, I understand that he would never learn sign and he doesn’t have much reason to right now, he isn’t the only person I have a communication barrier with. I realized that I could do something that would enable me to interact

when Hebrew Law denied the deaf of their rights. Deaf were refused the right to go to participate in temple and also refused the right to serve as a witness in court. Since then Deaf have struggled to be integrated in to society fairly due to audism. Audism is the discrimination of deaf or hard of hearing by a hearing person who believes that their ability to hear makes them superior. Audism, I learned, is still a very prevalent in today’s world and just as bad as racism and sexism. Being deaf or hard of hearing is still seen as a disability by most people that I know. Up until taking this class I honestly thought the same way but that has changed and I’m really glad that I can say I know that deafness isn’t at all a disability. I’ve learned that the Deaf community is in itself a whole different culture than from what hearing people experience. The deaf are incredibly social and proud of who they are. Deaf also make sure to keep each other informed and they are incredibly blunt and direct with each other. I will no longer consider deafness or being hard of hearing an impairment and will promptly correct those who say so in a positive

I learned that Kelvin, Celsius, and Fahrenheit, inventors of different temperature scales, were all deaf. Thomas Edison, responsible for over 1000 patents and helping create a functioning lightbulb, became hard of hearing due to an infection from when he was young. At the age of 44, Ludwig Van Beethoven had become almost completely deaf while continuing his incredible contributions to classical music. Olaf Hassel discovered the comet and a nova. The list goes on and on but deaf are rarely given the credit that they have deserved. Unfortunately, while trying to research more important Deaf in history I have found that both Alexander Graham Bell and Hellen Keller have been accredited too much. Many internet sources have claimed that Alexander Graham Bell was important in the Deaf community and made many contributions. I know that this is false from what I have learned in ASL, and it’s unfortunate he is being recognized when he had done so many things to prevent the Deaf community from