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oberon · 10-31-2003, 11:55 PM

I know the feeling. I have a lifelong profound loss of hearing. It annoys me every time I run into people who apparently have never heard of hearing loss, or when people ask for my phone number (I don't have a phone all right!!!!)...

Now, here's the trick. I *can* hear. The problem is, it still relies a lot on my lipreading skills. Most people I run into do not understand this. The reason is because most people harden their hearing skills when they are very young, like 3 or 4. Problem is, I was WAY behind. Anyway, it's gotten better but I'm still not good enough to be able to talk on a phone like most other people.

In fact... it has only gotten good enough that I made two short phone calls to my grandmother in the summer of 2003! Those were the very first phone calls I ever made without assistance (either human or machine, i.e. TTY/TDD).

So, what do I do? Simply put, I ignore inconsiderate people. They do not exist. What they said didn't happen. They get added to my shitlist if it is obviously in malice. I didn't figure out until I was 14 or so that people tend to stop annoying you if you don't acknowledge their crap in any way. And you know what? Except for the occasional ignorant person, it works.

10-31-2003, 11:55 PM	#14 (permalink)
oberon Quadrature Amplitude Modulator Location: Denver	I know the feeling. I have a lifelong profound loss of hearing. It annoys me every time I run into people who apparently have never heard of hearing loss, or when people ask for my phone number (I don't have a phone all right!!!!)... Now, here's the trick. I can hear. The problem is, it still relies a lot on my lipreading skills. Most people I run into do not understand this. The reason is because most people harden their hearing skills when they are very young, like 3 or 4. Problem is, I was WAY behind. Anyway, it's gotten better but I'm still not good enough to be able to talk on a phone like most other people. In fact... it has only gotten good enough that I made two short phone calls to my grandmother in the summer of 2003! Those were the very first phone calls I ever made without assistance (either human or machine, i.e. TTY/TDD). So, what do I do? Simply put, I ignore inconsiderate people. They do not exist. What they said didn't happen. They get added to my shitlist if it is obviously in malice. I didn't figure out until I was 14 or so that people tend to stop annoying you if you don't acknowledge their crap in any way. And you know what? Except for the occasional ignorant person, it works. __________________ "There are finer fish in the sea than have ever been caught." -- Irish proverb Last edited by oberon; 10-31-2003 at 11:58 PM..