What it’s Like to be Deaf

I’ve run out of things to say, I’ve got a really weird accent on, I don’t know where it’s come from, sorry. Oh, sorry I knocked the chair, is that okay? Hi, I’m Lucy and I’m back on the NDCS YouTube vlog channel. Today I’m going to be talking about how my deafness has always gone unseen and how it’s always been an invisible disability to me. Growing up, I’ve always worn two hearing aids and teachers never even realized I was wearing these hearing aids, and I was like, “Excuse me, I can’t hear,” and they were like, “Yes you can, you’re fine,” and I’d be like, “I have my hearing aids,” and they’re like, “Oh.” These are teachers; these teachers are meant to know what’s going on, these teachers are meant to know about the different disabilities that we all have. I wouldn’t even class myself as having a disability; I’d class myself as having a difficulty of hearing. It isn’t necessarily known as a disability; I’m not completely deaf, and I don’t always have classroom support. Another problem I have in the classroom is other young people understanding that I’m moderately deaf. All my friends seem to understand me because they are my friends, but there are groups of people who don’t seem to understand that I am hard of hearing. Hard of hearing is probably quite a difficult concept to understand because they could understand what it’s like to hear nothing, and they could understand what it’s like to hear everything, but where is the middle in that concept? I think it’s really hard for a deaf young person to express themselves in a classroom, but it’s also quite an exciting prospect. I like to think that we are all individuals, and everyone who has a hearing difficulty is expressing their deafness in a different way. I’m quite a loud person; my friends would often say that I don’t shut up, which to me isn’t a bad thing, but to some teachers, they don’t understand that if I’m being loud all the time, then actually it’s mainly due to my deafness. I was thinking about how I cope with it in different ways, and these different ways could be that I have really understanding teachers, and these teachers will make sure that there are notes written out for me, that they’re always facing me when they’re talking, and everything like that, whereas other teachers just don’t, especially in classrooms such as science labs. Other teachers kind of forget I’m there; I mold in with the rest of the class. I seem to be doing quite well in the lesson, I’m not falling behind. I wouldn’t like to think that I’m shy in telling people that I’m deaf, well, that I’ve got a moderate hearing loss, and I’d like to think I was quite able to go up to a teacher and say, “Hang on a minute, can you just help me out a second? I’ve got a hearing loss and I can’t quite catch what you’re saying.” I find being hard of hearing a really exciting thing; it’s opened so many new doors to me, but it’s also given me really good self-found confidence, which a lot of hard-of-hearing young people don’t have inside them. I think these people need to unlock what’s in them and just go for it. I hope you enjoyed today’s vlog and that you’ll keep watching every week when they get uploaded. I’d love to know what you think about deafness and about it being an invisible difficulty, and the problems you may have in school and how you solve these problems. It’ll be really exciting if you leave a comment, and it would also be awesome if you could like and subscribe to our videos. Thank you very much and see you next time, bye.