Five-Star Disability

Hi there my readers!

Today’s blog will be a serious topic, with some fun thrown in. I promise to deliver the goods, before I ramble off on some inane, through vaguely connected, spinoff topic.

My topic today is:

The Deaf-Blind Community.

Individuals of this exclusive group include individuals with both a Vision and Hearing loss. Well, it is Deaf-Blind right? Yet, I need to tell you that not every person who is Deaf-Blind is profoundly Deaf, meaning they cannot heard you screaming at them. Also, not every Deaf-Blind person is totally blind; most have some vision that can be used in even the simple ways.

Also, while it is common to see many Deaf-Blind individuals use ASL (American Sign Language) proficiently, fluently, offensively, persuasively, beautifully; using ASL is not a predetermined factor for being Deaf-Blind. I want to point out that not every Deaf-Blind person uses ASL.

Basically, there is two different groups under the Deaf-Blind umbrella: those who were born Deaf and lost their vision later in life, and those who were born hard of hearing and, you guessed it, lost their vision later in life. Most of the former group have Usher Syndrome, the latter group might have a version of Usher syndrome, or another cause. The major difference here is that those born Deaf, usually, have ASL fluency, whereas, those who were born hard of hearing do not have ASL fluency.

That is a Coles Notes version of Varieties of Deaf-Blind, which include Usher Syndrome. I had a longish explanation of the syndrome, but redacted it, because it was boring you, and you were complimenting leaving my blog unread! I’ll do a blog on Varieties of Deaf-Blind…

I want to tell you:

Persons who are DeafBlind are widely scattered across Canada, plus the rareness of being DeafBlind within a larger community, and the communication gap; are factors that lead to DeafBlind persons not easily connectable. And thus strife follows…

My point here, finally, is: persons who are DeafBlind should not be squabbling about the proper etymology of Deaf-Blind vs DeafBlind, or level of intervenor services, or isolation, or who did that for DeafBlind community, or who didn’t do anything… etc etc.

Because of the rarity of being DeafBlind, everyone should support each other, help each other with experience and wisdom, advise, listen, a kind word, a check-in to see how things are, be friendly to each other. These things are important, to me, to make a community stronger.

Not ridicule or tease, bullies we are not!

Now, I do understand that personal conflicts, I have a few myself, can and will happen; DeafBlind persons cannot always be BBFs, and rightly so with the communication issues outlined above, namely ASL vs Oral.

It is my humble opinion for DeafBlind persons across Canada, to embrace each other, help and support when needed, be patient to understand and slow to label, do not judge those within the DeafBlind community.

What works best for you may not work for her, what she does to advocate for herself might not work for you. But share anyways!

I am going to close this blog with my traditional signature, which should be (phew!) self-explanatory!

Enjoy Life, you only have one!

Remember to share, like, comment, donate (contact directly), talk to each other, be happy!