Deafness is not a form of Mental Impairment

A young man named Andrew did a demonstration of how he would sound and act as a deaf person in front of a classroom. What I’m truly disturbed is how he portrayed a person with deafness. Deafness is an invisible disability, and we don’t certainly act like we are unable to think for ourselves. Though, I do acknowledge that deafness is a disability but I don’t feel disabled because it’s something I grew up with. It taught me a lot about life and there are a lot of great people out there who are deaf.

I’m not deeply offended, but I did feel offended and saddened to see that there’s still a lot of ignorance regarding the deaf. It’s amazing with how much progress we’ve made, there are still a large number of people who are unaware and hold prejudices toward us. Really, how is it even considered funny for a person to impersonate a person who may be mentally/physically disadvantaged? Only a person with so much ignorance would do that. Yet the whole classroom roared in laughter. Teenagers may be carefree, but they also can be naïve and ignorant.

Just think twice before resorting to such an act of ignorance. Below are two links to a couple of video clips, one of Andrew making an ass out of himself and insulting the deaf at the same time. The second clip, a young woman is obviously a hearing person trying to mock a deaf person trying to communicate.

It’s quite amazing how some people are still resorting to this sort of juvenile behaviour. Children need to be taught of the meaning of the world, Respect.