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Being deaf

davidpeter.me

101–110 of 161 posts

Re: Being deaf

#101
post #24

I could try to find a deaf girl. However, I don’t want my kids to have an increased chance of deafness. This sounds like a classic case of premature optimisation. Cross that bridge when you get there. Thousands of other deaf parents have done so. Their kids were fine. Even if they come out hearing, we’d need to make sure they’re raised right — who will teach them how to talk? Let me respectfully suggest that this is…

This sounds like a classic case of premature optimisation. Cross that bridge when you get there. Thousands of other deaf parents have done so. Their kids were fine. Actually, you're right. Sometimes the girl I like is deaf, sometimes not. I should be fine with kids either way, and put in the work to make sure they develop right. I'm rethinking this entire paragraph. Perhaps I should have said I don't specifically sea…

As a hearing child of two deaf parents, I'm one data point against the notion that such a child's language skills are harmed. Sesame Street is a wonderful thing.

Re: Being deaf

#102
David, that was a very eloquent and well-written post and I certainly hope that you came away from writing that with a better sense of well-being.

I, too, am deaf, but our experiences are different. I was born deaf and am profoundly deaf with 85+ db loss in both ears. At the risk of sounding conceited, I'm what you would consider a success story.

A background:

As a child, I lived in San Diego, and my parents (at the advice of my speech therapist) enrolled me in a deaf school in Los Angeles that specialized in mainstreaming deaf students. I went there for 3 years and then joined a normal school in San Diego in 2nd grade wearing hearing aids.

At some point in time, I developed an ability to lip read and was able to speak without difficulty. This enabled me to have normal conversations with my hearing peers, and I was able to socialize.

So, trying to keep this short, I went through high school, went to college, received a cochlear implant (about 6 years ago), graduated from college with a degree in design, and I've actually worked with a number of companies in teams. I also met my wife (who is hearing) in college, and we've been together 10 years and married for almost 4.

I'm currently in my third week working as a lead designer for a YC startup in San Francisco, and it's a 6-member team. Great people, and there have been no issues as far as communication, and the team members here are very willing to accommodate any challenges I may have.

With that said, because lip reading requires me to intently watch people, I share your frustrations when it comes to conversations in an open office environment and in group conversations, but I found that one of the best ways to try to control that is to engage in conversation rather than be the 'fly on the wall'. I greatly rely on context when I lip read, so it's important to know what the context of the discussion is. It's actually much harder to lip read someone when you don't know what the context is.

Now, I have to say something - you said you use Cued Speech, and you sign. I believe that if you continued to do so, it would only frustrate you further. Furthermore, I'm surprised that you didn't make use of your speech therapy benefit, as that's probably the best way for you to overcome the difficulties you have. Learn how to lip read too - it's a fun party trick. :) Also, try to engage in normal conversations with your co-workers, no matter how challenging it might be. Practice is important. They will respect you for it. I completely understand the challenges of having a handicap and the challenges behind getting accommodation for your handicap, but I find that the best strategy is to ignore your handicap, overcome it, and come up with ways to accommodate yourself, not others.

If OP is David, you can contact me here on HN.

Re: Being deaf

#103
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person who was raised with two different household languages at different times, I can offer anecdotal evidence that this holds true. My refugee parents decided that their native language (Romanian) would be an obstacle for me in their new country (Thailand) and went for English instead. Then we got asylum in Sweden and I learned Swedish in kindergarten and so on. In Sweden my parents started speaking Romanian a…

So you learned English from TV? I thought I've always heard that didn't work.

tv is a very effective medium for improving command on english. in my case i started with english when i was around 10 and then slowly built up my language skills starting with disney cartoons > national geographic > tv and movies

Re: Being deaf

#104

Posts like this pain me. None of the hearing among us will ever truly understand what this is like. Posts such as this one give us a glimpse in to what it must be like, but that's all. There's no way we can understand the difficulties experienced day in and day out for the deaf. As a stutterer, I like to think that I understand a bit of what's it's like to not be able to communicate as well as some people. There's ti…

I'm also a stutterer. Everyday life is really a challenge when you are handicapped. And working life is even harder. Living in Germany, there is no way to do an interview via chat. They want to telephone with you and see you in person after the phone call. So it's almost impossible to get a job without help or connections. If you are lucky and got a job, you will always earn less than your workmates. The reasoning goes like this: 'Why would we want to pay this guy more money? He won't quit anyway. And if he quits, it's ok. He is handicapped, he should be happy to work for us." Unfortunately, they are right. But even buying a cup of coffee at starbucks is hard. Or buying a hamburger or a beer. You get the idea. And yes, i'm alone and unloved. Is it self-pity? I really don't know. But "normal" people can't imagine what it's like being deaf or being a stutterer etc. In the past, i always tried to be better in some other areas. Be a better programmer, work more, learn lots of things. But in the end, it's useless. The average normal guy will always get the job. Or the raise. Or the girl. Or have a nice chat with the starbucks clerk. My strategy for the future? None, I'm clueless.

Re: Being deaf

#105
post #3

"The only good access service I’ve ever gotten is Cued Speech. In a basic sense, Cued Speech is a system that uses signs for sound. It was invented to battle the spectacularly low deaf literacy rate. (The average reading level of deaf 17- and 18-year-olds is at the fourth grade level.2) " Wow. That is seriously depressing. I can't even imagine being deaf and not reading a lot. (I actually don't think my life would be…

Forget audiobooks; I'd miss driving.

Re: Being deaf

#106
David, you're also isolated from silly talks and silly pop music which most of us have to hear around. Also I have no doubt in your career, as you have to be stronger than others to compensate for your challenge.

just trying to find positive sides in your uneasy life :)

I also bookmarked your github page, as there may be some funded work popping up in some future

Re: Being deaf

#107
post #38

Warning: A long meandering post, about multiple things, because my day job is at a relay center, taking calls from/to deaf people. I absolutely understand his fear of letting a relay operator help him here. Now, obviously this fellow can write in English awesomely, and like any other place my coworkers are great people and (the vast majority are) trying to do their job well, so on paper you'd think it could work... B…

> Finally, why don't modern cell phones handle TTY calls?

My phone (a Droid 3) has a TTY mode. Not sure what that entails though.

Re: Being deaf

#108
One of my hero's and closest friends is deaf -- my younger brother. This is a wonderful article. Honest and sincere. Very cool of your founders to let you post this.

Seeing what life is like from the techie side of the road as a deaf man is a great reminder to work more collaboratively with our colleagues whether they are deaf, or any other cool things that make them unique. e.g. English as a 2nd or 3rd language. etc.

Wishing you the best of luck.

Re: Being deaf

#109
post #99
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use a directional mike aimed at roughly one's center of vision?

I feel like that cuts out some of the uses... perhaps you could us ML techniques to separate out different voices and then individually transcribe them? edit: wow this is a complicated problem now that I am thinking about it... the amount of processing the brain does...

I may be wrong, but I believe Kinect uses the information from its vision system that identifies people, to help inform the microphone array system with data that it can use to identify which of the people in front of it is talking at any one time...

Re: Being deaf

#110
Great post in so many ways.

Beyond other deaf people, migrant knowledge workers will know best about what he is talking about when describing social relationships at work.

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