Tag: Hearing Loss

Redux2 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….

Life On The Margins, ReduxLeave a comment

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…

Other ThingsLeave a comment

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…

Having My SayLeave a comment

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…..

Life On The MarginsLeave a comment

* 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….