As the title tells us, this video is all about how annoying ‘hearing’ people can be to those who are deaf. How many of us have reacted with “Am so sorry, I didn’t realize you are deaf!” on meeting a deaf person? Most of us are guilty of the same, for the simple reason, we just don’t know how to handle anyone who is different from the normal, as defined by us, ensconced in the safety of our smug conventions.
Ruth Nicholson -who loves being deaf, as she views it as her identify that makes her who she is- has made this half-humorous and half-educational video to try and get the hearing folks to understand first and foremost, that deaf and dumb DO NOT -she stresses- go together.
Ruth is someone who underwent years and years of speech therapy which enables her to speak as well as a ‘hearing’ person would do, but what irritates the life out of her, is when the majority assume that a deaf person is by default dumb too, both in the literal and figurative sense of the term.
Deaf does not mean the person is dim-witted, period.
Her being able to speak is her own unique deaf identity which needs to be factored in, rather than clubbing the entire deaf community as a uniform bunch with the same traits and characteristics. As Ruth says, each one is different, whether deaf or not.
Then there are some who react to her pronouncing certain words wrongly as if she just committed a crime. Sounds familiar? Ruth very aptly points out that if that has never been her problem, it should not be ours either…succintly put!
The video makes for a really good watch both for its utter lack of self-pity and Ruth’s confident persona. It is definitely NOT a cry for help but a commonsensical call for the ‘hearing’ folks to behave sensibly, if ever they have to interact with someone who cannot hear.