Deaf/HH Infusion

The Capacity for Human Potential

By Karen Putz, H&V Headquarters

When you remove the communication and language barriers, you can then tap into a higher capacity for potential. I often wonder how many deaf and hard of hearing people are unable to tap into their skills, talents, and abilities because they do not have full communication access or have been deprived of language.

Sometimes I lie awake at night wondering how many deaf and hard of hearing souls are being held back.

You see, when I was growing up, my capacity for human potential was measured against those with normal hearing levels.

With my series of “x’s” and “o’s” on an audiogram, I felt like I could never measure up in certain areas.

Group conversations? Impossible.

Using the phone? Impossible (this was before video and caption relay).

Ability to hear stuff around me? Impossible.

As a result, I felt like I was living with half of what I needed to shine. 

In high school, I signed up for a journalism class. I loved to write. The only steady job I knew as a writer was as a reporter for a newspaper. So, I dreamed of writing for the Chicago Tribune or the Sun Times.

Then reality hit. I was assigned to do an article about the high school volleyball team. I sat in the stands with my reporter notebook and tried to follow the game. I knew who won the game–but that was it. I couldn’t hear the announcements or play by play descriptions.

I cornered the coach after the game and requested a quick interview. It was incredibly loud in the gym. I couldn’t exactly take notes while trying to decipher his answers. Here and there, I asked for clarification when I didn’t understand. The coach was impatient and in a hurry to leave.

I left the gym feeling deflated. I cursed my inability to hear. I went home and cried.

The next day, I turned in a small paragraph. The teacher was not impressed.

Then she assigned me to a school board meeting.

My heart hit the floor.

Group conversations were a nightmare for me. It was like being in a Ping Pong game. Lipread the first person, scan the room to see who answered, lipread the end of a sentence, scan the room again, repeat. (This was all before I learned to sign AND learned how important the right hearing aids were for me).

I sat in that school board meeting feeling lower and lower with each passing minute. I could only grasp bits and pieces of conversations. There was nothing that I could quote.

Then the secretary said, “The minutes will be available in a day or two.” I let out a sigh of relief. At least I would have something solid to use as a reference for my article. 

I was able to write an article from the minutes and put in a quote from one of the board members. I got an “A.”

Leveling the Playing Field

When I talk with parents, I often share the story of Tony Abou Ezzi. I first met Tony when he was a junior in high school. Like many hard of hearing students, he was working hard each day trying to access everything taught in the classroom. He was studying late into the night, but his grades simply did not reflect his ability. Without first leveling the playing field with full communication access, Tony could not even begin to tap into his full potential.

The school team offered to put a swivel chair in each classroom so that Tony could swivel around and try to capture what the other students were saying. (I kid you not.)

I attended Tony’s IEP meeting to advocate for real-time captioning services. The team was hesitant but agreed to do a trial for two weeks. It took some time to get the services implemented, but on the very first day, the access was life-changing. “I had no idea how much I was missing in the classroom,” he told his mother when he arrived home the first day. After that, Tony became a big advocate for captioning in the classroom and he went on to become an attorney.

There’s a lesson here about human potential when it comes to deaf and hard of hearing people…

When you remove the communication and language barriers, you can then tap into a higher capacity for potential. I often wonder how many deaf and hard of hearing people are unable to tap into their skills, talents, and abilities because they do not have full communication access or have been deprived of language.

And here’s the thing…

We can’t really measure potential.

We don’t know what the limits are for each human being.

During my sophomore year of college, I met with a career counselor to try and select a major. I had abandoned the idea of becoming a reporter, but nursing appealed to me. I thought about becoming a Labor and Delivery nurse, but I was a bit apprehensive because I had just become deaf during the summer.

“How will you communicate with the doctors if you can’t use the phone?”

“What if you misunderstand and give the wrong medicine?”

The questions simply added to the apprehension I felt and drove home the fact that once again, I couldn’t measure up to someone with hearing in the normal range.

So, I picked a “safe” major. Deafness Rehabilitation Counseling. I know many kids today still choosing “safe” majors.

And years later, I met Dr. Carolyn Stern. A deaf doctor who was delivering babies at Northwestern University in Chicago.

And…

I met deaf and hard of hearing firefighters, audiologists, veterinarians, engineers, waiters, comedians, musicians, EMTs, pilots, chefs, business owners, authors, CEOs, photographers…and even a deaf nurse who worked in the emergency room at a major hospital.  I was fortunate—because those deaf and hard of hearing role models helped me to see that I could use my gifts, skills, and abilities without letting the “audiogram results” stop me. I wrote for the Chicago Tribune for a year and half, became a doula and helped mothers birth their babies, and wrote a couple of books. I became a competitive barefoot water skier at the age of 44. (Potential knows no time limit!)

As parents, we often waiver between the “reality” of what we know about our child and the push to tap into their potential. And consider this: sometimes our challenges become a gain for everyone else. Back in the early 1970’s, Vinton Cerf, who is hard of hearing (75 dB hearing loss in both ears), served on a team that created the beginnings of the internet. Vinton is known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet.” He also helped to create email—making it easier for deaf and hard of hearing people to communicate over the internet.

Think about this…billions of people use the internet…and a hard of hearing guy was part of that creation.   

As for your deaf/hard of hearing child, who knows what the limits are. What you focus on expands—choose to focus on the abilities. Observe what your child is passionate about. Encourage new skill development. Learn something new together each day. If it hasn’t been done before, maybe YOUR child will lead the way.   ~

H&V Communicator – Summer 2019