I am hearing. I work for Sprint Relay and relay calls for the deaf and hard of hearing as my job. It's a fun job and I love helping folks.
I have started taking ASL classes at my university and am really enjoying them. I've always had a hard time learning 'foreign languages' but am learning ASL very easily. It just 'feels' right.
My boss Matthew is Hard of Hearing and is like the girl Averett described. He can read lips and has partial hearing so as long as you make sure and face him, he can understand you. He's helping me learn sign which is great.
His friend organizes meetings of Deaf people through the web site
www.deafcoffee.com here in Ohio. The Deaf people I've met have all been very supportive about me learning sign and very friendly. Great people.
