A friend of mine had a deaf friend come to visit, and I met him and her in a pub. She (is deaf) and I sat opposite each other, he sat between us on the side, and proceeded to turn his head to look a me each time he talked to me. I kept saying 'yeah, I can hear you, Amy needs to see your lips', but he simply couldn't get it. I know some simple sign language, so eventually we just sat there saying rude things about him in sign language! I suspect I would have spoken to the server, but touched the deaf girl on the arm so she understood what I was doing.
My best friend in highschool was deaf. It was so great! We used to sign to each other about who was cute and stuff, and could do it across the hall without any one else realising *who* we were talking about hee hee hee Um... anyway... that was a long time ago and the only sign I remember now is "cute" (wot a surprise) but I'd be too shy to use it in case I got it wrong!
But I also tend to lip read more than people realise, so I'm conscious of where to face when I know people around me have difficulties. At least, when I know other people have difficulties too.
I hadn't thought about it, but my mum is deaf in one ear, and has recently learnt sign language, so maybe this is an area I have a better grasp in. mind you, that night in the pub, I commented that while Amy can read lips and knew what was going on, I couldn't - and as she doesn't really use her voice in public cause she thinks it is awful, I could have handled being able to read lips!
I know the alphabet, so I can make myself understood (in the most painful way possible) if needs be. plus mum has taught me random stuff - mainly stuff she found funny. remind me to show you nationalities some time.
The deaf lass didn't seem distressed but wasn't looking all that happy either.
I pointed out the woofer and the lass serving food became incredibly awkward and spent even more time facing away trying to work out how to behave by talking with her work colleagues. *sighs*
I would like to have handled it better. I'm assuming basic etiquette is to provide visual signals when you're about to talk and to make it easy to lip read by speaking clearly and facing them.
My personal experience with this is that no matter how polite I am, the deaf (or blind) person will always get irritated or hostile whenever I try to help.
The one and only exception was a blind guy getting on a tram here in Melbourne: the driver tried to close door with the dog on and guy still out and I had to jam the door open with my foot. He was very relieved, as was the dog. :)
Turning it around, I would probably get fairly annoyed too, by some random wandering over and assuming I was incapable of negotiating the treacherous perils of ordering my food or finding the Exit or whatever ...
With no distress, I'd probably stay out of the way. If there is unhappiness, or crankiness, I'd ask the deaf person if they'd like some kind of help. They'd know best what they need.
I met one once. My deaf friend signed "Go and get Vanessa" (her daughter) to the dog and the dog quickly left the room and came back a minute later with Vanessa. Dogs are very intelligent and can get used to signs they are trained to read. I suppose in dangerous situations they could be trained to respond to alarms or things like that and be able to alert the deaf person to get out of the building or whatever.
Deaf people need to have people facing them when speaking to them. Pointing out the dog alone might not be useful as they may assume she is blind, but pointing it out, explaining it is a hearing dog and then asking the girl behind the counter to face the deaf lass while speaking may help. She needs to be able to read the lip cues of the girl behind the counter and once that girl knows this she can be more useful.
Out of interest, where was this and what did the dog look like? I know a couple of people...
Carousel, small, Kelpie sized black dog with a Labrador look about it.
ETA: That is where I failed, I assumed that pointing out she was deaf would be enough but shopgirl had no idea how to deal with the situation and actually faced deaf lass less as a result of my actions. *facepalm*
Is it weird replying to things ages after the post?!
There's not many hearing woofers out there in my experience... Most deafies that I know seem to just sign their way around and use whatever vocalisation they are comfortable with or just write it down when it gets too difficult.
surprisingly easy to pick up again though as I've discovered.... apparently Auslan only has a vocab of about 6000 signs.... of which maybe 5000 give or take are compiled into the Auslan dictionary
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Um... anyway... that was a long time ago and the only sign I remember now is "cute" (wot a surprise) but I'd be too shy to use it in case I got it wrong!
But I also tend to lip read more than people realise, so I'm conscious of where to face when I know people around me have difficulties. At least, when I know other people have difficulties too.
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I know the alphabet, so I can make myself understood (in the most painful way possible) if needs be. plus mum has taught me random stuff - mainly stuff she found funny. remind me to show you nationalities some time.
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I pointed out the woofer and the lass serving food became incredibly awkward and spent even more time facing away trying to work out how to behave by talking with her work colleagues. *sighs*
I would like to have handled it better. I'm assuming basic etiquette is to provide visual signals when you're about to talk and to make it easy to lip read by speaking clearly and facing them.
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If she looked like she was a tad annoyed or anything, then yeah, I'd probably think of something.
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The one and only exception was a blind guy getting on a tram here in Melbourne: the driver tried to close door with the dog on and guy still out and I had to jam the door open with my foot. He was very relieved, as was the dog. :)
Turning it around, I would probably get fairly annoyed too, by some random wandering over and assuming I was incapable of negotiating the treacherous perils of ordering my food or finding the Exit or whatever ...
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Out of interest, where was this and what did the dog look like? I know a couple of people...
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ETA: That is where I failed, I assumed that pointing out she was deaf would be enough but shopgirl had no idea how to deal with the situation and actually faced deaf lass less as a result of my actions. *facepalm*
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There's not many hearing woofers out there in my experience... Most deafies that I know seem to just sign their way around and use whatever vocalisation they are comfortable with or just write it down when it gets too difficult.
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I don't know any deaf people so I'm kinda stuck for working out what's patronising and what's being helpful.
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