Tag: Hearing Loss

Having My SayLeave a comment

No…..

RJ Walters

I am thankful to all those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I did it myself.  –Albert Einstein After collecting a number of Einstein quotes he is becoming one of my favorites and this is one of the best ones. I know in my life I have always asked “Why is this like ….” I often get the equivalent of “no” as a reply or maybe more accurately “this is the way we have always done it…” or some such as that. Those refusals to take seriously my “why” has made me stronger over the years. It … Continue reading No…..

Life On The Margins4 Comments

Late Deafened Culture??

RJ Walters

I have had some questions and some search engine links to my blog about a “late deafened culture” so I want to talk a little about that here. As I mentioned on other posts I have been deaf for the last twenty-five years or so. Anyone who went deaf after acquiring the ability to speak is considered late deafened so I am obviously one. We make up about 1.5% of the current population in the U.S. The other deaf group is the pre-lingually deaf.  They typically have been deaf since birth or at a very early stage.  They make up … Continue reading Late Deafened Culture??

Having My Say2 Comments

Cracking the code: Why yuor barin can raed tihs

RJ Walters

Source: The Body Odd – Cracking the code: Why yuor barin can raed tihs. For emaxlpe, it deson’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod aepapr, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. It is funny how we can read this above sort of thing. It is even funnier how I can read my own handwriting a day or more after I have written it. We use context to pre-activate the areas of our brains … Continue reading Cracking the code: Why yuor barin can raed tihs

Having My Say2 Comments

The Sounds of Silence…

RJ Walters

It has been a while since I relayed any stories about my deafness so I thought I would present one here. One of my favorite singer/composers was Simon and Garfunkel from the 1960’s. I still have all their albums including perhaps my favorite song from them which was “The Sounds of Silence”. Little did I know back then that the title of this song would take on a completely different meaning for me. I have been deaf for about twenty five years now and as a result of that the sounds of silence is indeed the sound of silence. In … Continue reading The Sounds of Silence…

Having My Say2 Comments

Closed Captioned TV….

RJ Walters

Continuing on with tools that help me and other deaf people coupe in the hearing world this post will cover closed captioning. When I went deaf in 1988 there only about 10% of the television coverage was closed captioned. That meant that I was pretty shut out of TV.  And even for that 10% I had to order an external closed captioning unit for my TV as the hardware was not standard at that time. The captioning unit costs almost as much as the TV and due to some technical matters the degree of accuracy of the captioning varied widely. Some of … Continue reading Closed Captioned TV….

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Born Deaf vs Late Deafened…

RJ Walters

I think of my deafness as an affliction that I must daily try to overcome in order to go about my business in the hearing world. That is not the case with some, perhaps most, who are born deaf. They claim they celebrate their deafness to the degree that they deem giving any child who is deaf a cochlear implant is child abuse! A cochlear implant is a device that is surgically inserted into a deaf person’s hearing system to allow many of them to hear. The deaf who strongly identify with their deafness are know as the Deaf Culture … Continue reading Born Deaf vs Late Deafened…

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Being alone in the world…

RJ Walters

  I know that I am not the only person in the U.S. who is deaf. In reality there are more than three million of us around. About two million of those are like me who went deaf as an adult. That means for Indiana where I live there are about forty thousand of us around. But since I am not active in any deaf clubs or organizations I seldom come across another deaf person in my daily life. When I do I am most often too surprised to try to effectively communicate with them. So, to me being deaf almost … Continue reading Being alone in the world…

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Text Messaging is the Way For Me…..

RJ Walters

When I went deaf in 1988 there was no way for me to communicate with my wife or others once I left the house. Even at home calling others was almost impossible. I had a device called a TTY but the person I called also had to have one to communicate with me. They cost about $500 and could only be used with deaf people so they were far and few between. I could use a thing called the Deaf Relay service. How that worked was that I would call a special operator with my TTY and they would call … Continue reading Text Messaging is the Way For Me…..

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* I am deaf….

RJ Walters

I am doing something here that I have not done on any of the other blogs I have created. I am going to come up front with the fact that I am deaf. Being deaf is a major part of my daily experiences but it is not who I am. It is just one of those obstacles that sometimes get in the way of having the full life experiences I desire. I have many stories to relay to you about being deaf but they will wait for a later posts. There is also a lot of very different statistics about … Continue reading * I am deaf….