…and I’ll never take it for granted again. My broken ankle is healing well and my cast came off last week.\u00a0 As of last Friday, I’m allowed to walk inside and I can start with 1 – 3 blocks outside.\u00a0 It doesn’t sound like much, but what a difference it makes when you want to go somewhere that’s hard to access in a wheelchair.\u00a0 It’s a long, slow process but the healing is happening and as I leave the wheelchair, I have many lessons and experiences to\u00a0take with me.<\/p>\n
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I’ve now\u00a0experienced three disabilities and have gained perspective on each one.\u00a0I really hate calling them disabilities or handicaps though, because I still feel\u00a0able.\u00a0 Even being in the wheelchair didn’t stop me from doing most things.\u00a0 I just had to do them a little differently.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It’s been interesting to see how\u00a0different people react to my various “inconveniences.”\u00a0 While I’ve been in the wheelchair, people have\u00a0reacted mainly in three ways.\u00a0 One is to look at me with sympthy and maybe a half-smile and quickly look away.\u00a0The second is to ignore me completely and move\u00a0past me quickly.\u00a0The third way is to treat me normally, talk to me, and help however they can.\u00a0 I’m so\u00a0happy to say that most people I’ve come across not only\u00a0are in\u00a0the third group, but they have been so helpful and kind\u00a0I’ve been overwhelmed by how wonderful people can be.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With my eyesight problem there hasn’t been much opportunity for people to react because most of the time they can’t tell I’ve lost vision.\u00a0 Since it’s my close up vision, it’s not really front and center when I’m in public.\u00a0 But anytime I’ve had a problem, people have been more than willing to help – for instance, by telling me what’s on a label, finding the book I just couldn’t seem to see, reading the fine print to me, etc.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
People’s\u00a0reactions to my being unable to hear is a little more complicated. People who don’t know me\u00a0tend to speak before I know they’re talking to me so of course I almost always miss the first things they say.\u00a0 I have to say, “I’m sorry but I’m deaf and I read lips so could you repeat that for me?”\u00a0\u00a0Even people who know I’m deaf\u00a0 sometimes forget and speak without facing me or have their hand over their mouth.\u00a0 And even if they do things perfectly, sometimes I just have trouble getting it.\u00a0\u00a0(Reading lips\u00a0is far from perfect.)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The reaction to that usually goes one of two ways.\u00a0 “Oh! I’m sorry,” they sometimes say. And then they repeat and make sure I can see their lips.\u00a0 The other way is a heavy sigh and a shrug or wave accompanied by, “Never mind.”\u00a0 That’s the way that makes me want to scream,\u00a0\u00a0 “Please don’t dismiss me because I can’t hear.\u00a0\u00a0And if I can’t get what you’re saying even after you repeat it,\u00a0please don’t get annoyed and frustrated.\u00a0 Try\u00a0rephrasing it so\u00a0I might be able to read it easier, or\u00a0maybe you could write it down.\u00a0 But please don’t wave me off because I’m deaf.”\u00a0 That’s what I want to say. But so often I don’t get the chance because that person said “Never mind” and moved on. I absolutely hate “never mind.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In my experience, being deaf has been the least sympathetic challenge I’ve faced.\u00a0 Being unable to walk or being unable to see something\u00a0has evoked more kindness and empathy from people than being unable to hear.\u00a0 I don’t know why that is but it sure makes me wonder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
…and I’ll never take it for granted again. My broken ankle is healing well and my cast came off last week.\u00a0 As of last Friday, I’m allowed to walk inside and I can start with 1 – 3 blocks outside.\u00a0 It doesn’t sound like much, but what a difference it makes when you want to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}