Life Through Deaf Eyes

I learned so much from this film! I didn’t know if someone got a cochlear implant that it took away all the rest of their natural hearing. I didn’t even know that it was a permanent procedure. I thought it was insane some of the methods that were supposed to cure deafness. An airplane ride, or meeting a famous person to shock you into being able to hear. What were they thinking? Church revivals and if the preacher couldn’t heal you the person didn’t have enough faith? I had no idea how much persecution that people who are deaf have been through! So glad to have watched this, it’s so informative! I would love to learn more about oralism and Gallaudet University! I am going to try and find Children of a lesser god and watch it, it looks really good! I have seen Marlee Matlin in another movie called Foreclosed.

I have never once thought that a deaf person’s intelligence had anything to do with their ability to speak or lipread that shocked me. I am terrible at lipreading and I never once thought anyone could do it. Another shocker for me was Alexander Graham Bells’ view of keeping deaf people apart thinking it would create deaf children and he wanted to eradicate deafness. I always thought of Bell as synonymous with the invention of the telephone. I’m surprised that he had those views having a wife who was deaf and his own mother! He seems unkind to have those views. The film was pretty sad at some points like black people not being able to join the National Association of the Deaf for 40 years, and the way people who are deaf were/are discriminated against. I am glad that people are coming around and recognizing the culture and language now. It broke my heart when I saw the part talking about the Milan conference forboding signing and if students were caught they were forced to wear mittens with short strings that prevented them from doing so, I remember thinking how unethical that was, and it was sad that their only means of communication was taken from them. I would like to learn more about the concept of Earth and Eyeth. I want to learn more about the Deaf culture period. I never thought about there being specific deaf schools because I knew three people who went to public school, as I learned in the video 85% of deaf attend regular schooling while 15% go to a deaf school. So it makes sense that I never knew there were specialty schools. The film discussed how many deaf children were dropped off at these boarding schools, the parents offering no explanation and leaving their children. Some didn’t even know their names, one can only imagine their sheer terror watching their parents’ departure not knowing what was to come. I think it would be lonely if you thought no one else in the world was like you, it would be isolating to think you were the only deaf person until you met another! I think deaf schools facilitated this comradery. The “Met deaf wow” moment per se.

I find sign names intriguing, I really want to make friends and get one can’t wait! I think that the Deaf President Now movement was so awe-inspiring, people thought Deaf people were incapable, they rallied and brought change, with a majority (93%) of America backing them up. I remember going to see the audiologist growing up, I have had several surgeries on my ears and I hated saying the words over and over. That part of the film was like a flashback to my childhood. My eardrums are paper thin. More recently my inner ear is pushing into my middle ear and my ears haven’t popped in 2 years possibly more. I thought Summer’s story about how after she went to deaf school she felt like she fit in was so interesting. I liked how she told her story of how she found the school and she made the switch and her parents were concerned she wouldn’t wear her implant and just the opposite happened it was a feel-good, heartwarming story. I was confused and had to think about Daniel’s story for a little while. The reason being, the bit the mom discusses how if you never hear a sound you won’t miss it, and how she was the one feeling like her son needed to hear those sounds, it was very thought-provoking. I agree whole-heartedly with the ending that knowledge and heart are what is important not being able to hear. People who are deaf can function just fine, just like anybody else.