Double Whammy

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As a person with a disability, how have you gained adult status in the eyes of others?

Double Whammy

Name: Gary Roberts
Email: jg86@hotmail.com
Date: 29 Mar 2000
Time: 15:03:32

Story

Over the years I have encountered many people who are deaf-blind. Most of the readers have heard of Helen Keller, and her heroics as a deaf-blind person. It is a story that makes for good reading. In truth, life is often not about heroic struggles as much as it is about just surviving -- living from one day to the next.

I have had deaf-blind clients and friends, and deaf-blind clients who later became friends. I have heard their stories and have gained some insight into their lives. Deaf people are a visually orientated people, and blindness makes everything that a deaf person cherishes difficult. Sign Language is the mode most used by deaf people to break out of isolation. Blindness hampers the free flow of that communication.

Ushers Syndrome is a genetic-based disease that causes congenital deafness and subsequent onset of blindness due to retina pervis . Many people with this syndrome are able to live into adult as a deaf person, and then must face the prospect of blindness . Blindness, or a severe visual handicap that eventually occurs is understandably traumatic for a person who is deaf .

Many deaf-blind people, like Helen Keller, go on to accomplish a lot with their lives. There are state, national, and international associations of deaf-blind people. Technology has enabled deaf-blind people to use the phone, read TV captions in Braille, and be aware of environmental intruders through sound vibrators. There are other adaptations to homes, as well as personal aides.

In the past, I have tried to serve as a bridge between deaf-blind people and the deaf community. Deaf-blind people who are fluent in sign language before onset of blindness can communicate with tactile signs. The person lays their hands on yours, and follows your hands as you form the signs. Another communication option is to fingerspell, with the person laying their hands on your hand to feel the position of the hand as you spell words. I have friends who can communicate by having someone write words in their palms, or through speech reading by touching the face and lips as one speaks. There are also typewriters that enable the person to receive Braille impressions on their hands while the person talking to them types on a regular key board.

As a counselor I have always tried to impress upon deaf-blind people who still have functional sight the need to learn adaptive skills while still sighted. Braille and other self- care skills are easier to teach while you can still see, then they are following the onset of blindness. The reality though, is that to motivate a person to undertake the learning of new skills, you have to deal with denial of the reality of the situation he is facing.

I have accompanied many deaf-blind people to deaf social gatherings to observe them being ignored or neglected. People often don't have a clue about how to deal with their blindness. Deaf people, as I mentioned, are very visually orientated and depend on vision for a free flow of communication. Deaf people are also like people in general -- often upset by the extent of the deaf-blind person's disability . The results are often isolation for the deaf-blind person, and in many cases onset of serious depression and mental illness.

I think all of us with a disability should interact with other people who may have more challenges then we have to overcome. As a deaf person I can not imagine how I would react to blindness. Deafness is limiting socially, and blindness causes one to fall into dependency on others. A Para enjoys more function ability then a Quad, but both can learn from each other. The tragedy of disability in America is that we don't come together, but instead emphasize the things that make us different. If people with different disabilities would sit down together, we could find more in common then we have in difference.

Our existence is often perilous and fraught with danger. Too many of us are dependent on transfer payments, Social Security, and other forms of assistance.Our dependence makes us more vulnerable, as the majority can control the quality of our lives. At the same time, programs designed to help us return to the mainstream of life are used by others to gain income and status.

I am going to spend some time today with a deaf-blind friend. Thinking of him motivated this article. I hope some readers out there will, in turn, use a day each week -- or whatever -- to interact with someone who is disabled. Get over your fears and inhibitions, sit down with a more severely disabled person and talk together. Share your dreams so that you may dream together in reality, later in life. The future we have must be shared because the past is too bleak to consider.

Double Whammy

Story

Last changed: October 20, 2003