Deaf vs. deaf
Photo Credit: Amy Bond Photography
By Kristy Whilden
Deaf is an identity and culture that has been around for centuries. The Deaf world is a beautiful place that I thankfully have found during my struggles with my diagnosis of progressive sensorineural hearing loss. They are a welcoming community of amazing people who feel that deafness is not an impairment, but something to be celebrated. In American Deaf culture the primary method of communication is American Sign Language. People in the Deaf culture were generally born into it and ASL was their first language and many of them attended Deaf schools. CODA, or Child Of a Deaf Adult, is a term used for hearing children born to deaf parents. In many instances these children grow up to be bridges between the Deaf and hearing worlds and interpreting for their parents. These children learn ASL first and many times need speech therapy in school to help hone in on their English skills. However, did you know that according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents? This is where the small, “d” deaf comes in.
The usage of deaf generally pertains to a medical diagnosis and not a culture. People who identify as deaf usually were raised thinking their deafness was a medical issue in what the Deaf community call the hearing world. They also were mainstreamed into hearing schools and taught to speak and not to sign. English is their first language. Often when a child is born deaf the parents look for ways to “fix” their child such as getting cochlear implants or have them wear hearing aids. This also pertains to people who lose their hearing later on in life, also known as late deafened adults, just like me.
I decided to see an Audiologist when my children started to complain that the music in my car or the TV was too loud. I found myself questioning what others were saying to me more often than not. When I arrived at the office I was put into a soundproof booth and given a hearing test. I was asked to listen for a series of beeps to which I had to push a small button if I heard one. After the Audiologist spoke small words and phrases at different tones to record what I can and cannot hear onto an audiogram. For educational purposes for this article I decided to plot my results on a child’s audiogram with pictures to show exactly how big of a spectrum hearing loss actually can be.
When you look at an audiogram all of the numbers to the left represent the intensity (loudness) of a sound measured in decibels. The numbers across the top are the frequency (pitch) from lowest to highest measured in Hertz. To better understand frequency and intensity imagine a piano. If you press the keys from left to right then you would be starting with the lowest pitch, such as a truck engine, and working your way to the highest pitch, such as a bird chirping. Now how hard you hit those keys (intensity) whether softly or loudly will determine at what intensity would be needed for someone to hear a specific pitch.
With that being said, now look at my audiogram. The red O’s are my right ear (my “bad” ear) and the blue Xs are my left ear (my “good” ear.) So, if you look at everything below the red O’s, that is what I can hear out of my right ear. If you look at the blue X’s, that is what I can hear out of my left ear. So for example I cannot hear birds chirping, whispering, rustling leaves, and dripping water. But I can hear an airplane, a rock band, a jack hammer, a chainsaw, motorcycle, and a piano (except the top few notes if they are played too softly.) You also see a bright yellow section known as the speech banana. I can hear some speech sounds in my left ear but not many on my right. If someone speaks clearly and to my face I can generally understand what is being said and can fill in a bit with lip reading. I cannot hear anyone that stands behind me on my right side. I prefer to fill in the blanks with ASL. Hearing aids do help me but can be very painful and disorienting. I do like that they have an app where I can control how loud they are and turn down any background noise.
If you were to take one thing away from this article I wish for it to be a better understanding of how vast the spectrum of deafness can be and the difference of deafness as an identity and culture vs. a medical diagnosis. My name is Kristy Whilden and I identify as small “d” deaf with a moderate to severe loss. I may have lost most of my hearing at the age of 34, but I have decided to embrace this, “Loss,” and learn as much about the Deaf world as possible. I now have a degree in Deaf Studies and ASL and try to surround myself with the Deaf community. I have met some of the most amazing people who are now my great friends.
Kristy Whilden is a #1 International Bestselling author for her book Dear Younger Self : From Shelter to CEO. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hands Up Silent Theatre. At Hands Up they encourage the d/Deaf to learn more about the performing arts and encourage the hearing to learn ASL and interact with d/Deaf/HOH peers. Together they create performances for the d/Deaf/HOH and hearing communities to enjoy as one! Kristy is a Rutgers and Rowan College at Burlington County graduate and is currently earning her MFA at Southern New Hampshire University where she is specializing in writing novels with diverse characters. When she’s not reading and writing, or her feet aren’t on the stage, she’s hanging with her three kids, family, and guinea pig.
