06 Oct, 2007
Being Deaf
Posted by: Rob
Yes, another post about being Deaf. If you’re bored with this topic, go somewhere else! 
You’ve got to expect it; I’m Deaf after all.
I was just reading this post, which provides an extremely insightful account of a hearing person’s experience of the Madrid WFD Congress. It summarises rather neatly what it’s like to be Deaf, how we perceive being Deaf, and what being part of the Deaf community is like.
My life is rather curious. I’m fully immersed in both Deaf and hearing worlds, and find it easy to switch between BSL and spoken English (making me bilingual).
I’m married to a deaf woman who has deaf parents and a deafened brother (deaf because they are oral and do not use BSL). The rest of my family and Rachel’s family are all hearing. My parents and sister have recently started to learn BSL, following a great deal of prompting from me, which gives me rather a thrill.
I work for a deaf charity, which is focused on BSL users, and most of my colleagues are Deaf BSL users.
At the moment, my life is pretty much split between South Wales and London, providing a neat oral/BSL divide. I guess you could say that I would like the two very important parts of my life to be merged into one. Whether that ever happens, remains to be seen.
