Communicate with Deaf Persons - How?

Communicate with Deaf Persons - How?
Kathern G. Lawrence


In this world, the hearing meet Deaf persons face to face in different settings, recognizing that they are deaf or they cannot hear. Shortly, they decide how to communicate with them. Commonly, they choose the most convenient way to communicate with them -of course, by speaking as they assume the Deaf can lipread and speak well. Beside written language, speaking is the hearing's vocal language, a part of their culture, they grow with all their lives to chat with one another so they speak with them. In some cases, they find out that some Deaf individuals cannot speak nor lipread well. Often, the hearing don't bother to alter to another way of communication to get messages across. For example, when I don't follow what a female cashier says, she realizes that I am deaf, and she doesn't try to speak again nor switch to writing a note. She simply says, "Never mind" that I have often lipread in other settings. I frown or beckon, hesitating that she tells me what she has said. Sometimes, she gives in and scribbles something, and her willingness to communicate with me another way usually makes me feel good.  In appreciation for her gesture of understanding the needs of Deaf persons, I respond to the lady, writing back, nodding, or shaking my head.


The administration at schools for the deaf, day schools, intergrated (inclusion) school programs decides which mode of communication Deaf children are educated through: speaking or sign language. In some cases, they choose an oral-approach education for them. With hearing aids or cochlear implants, they learn to lipread and listen to spoken sounds and gross sounds. Good speaking is preferably more focused than quality education. The intention of the program is to have Deaf persons interact normally in a hearing society, but oftentimes they miss important messages in conversations in group settings. They can speak well enough, but when lipreading, they usually get lost as to what contexts are about. They may just nod and smile, saying nothing or saying something off the point. The Deaf persons should not bluff around with the hearing because they don't realize how much they have missed in the conversation. They may want to act like the hearing, but they don't get as much information as the hearing.


A very small number of Deaf people succeed in lipreading;yet, lipreading accuracy rates at a very low percentage in a group setting, a class setting, or a conference setting. They may become social bluffs; they get by as they pretend what the hearing people say and the hearing assume they understand what they have said. They often get by with the hearing they interact, but it is not always the best way for us to get whole messages. The best way to chat by lipreading is when a Deaf person chats with only one hearing person who can understand her /his speech, and it often works efficiently in an one-to-one setting.


Another issue is that not every Deaf person can learn to speak as well as other Deaf people. For example, I don't speak intelligibly. Only a few people who know me well through our upbringing can understand my Deaf voice enough to carry on our conversation.  My younger sister, Rosemary Boudreau, whom I grew closely with during our childhood, can follow my conversation. Many hearing people in the public have trouble following me. As a result, I always write down notes to chat with the people.


Even my 97- years- old mom, Eva Geldart, has never understood my Deaf voice; she can only understand a few statements that I say: "I know", "I love you", "No". Now nearly 60 years have passed that my mother never understands me even though I vocally talk to her. She shakes her head and keeps saying, "Write down." I always write notes to talk with her; meanwhile, she speaks and I lipread her. I understand her most of the time when I know what we are talking about. This is how my mother and I always communicate.



When I started the first year at the Halifax School for the Deaf, the principal, Mr. Karl Van Allen who emigrated from England, suggested to my parents (Dad Everette Geldart and Mom) that they should practice the oral method (speaking), not sign language to communicate. They agreed to abide by the superior authority who thought the oral method was the best answer for Deaf children to learn. He explained that when we graduated from school, we would succeed vocally in the hearing society. However, it didn't work for some Deaf persons. Every time I came home from the school, my parents always had trouble following me so they depended on my sister, Rosemary, or my niece Claudette Perron, to interpret what I had said. They regretted not learning sign language. Rosemary learned fingerspelling; every time she doesn't understand what word I speak, she asks me to fingerspell it, and also, vice versa.


My cousin, Lorna McMullin, living near Hampton, N.B., probably the youngest relative, and I became close since we met each other at Mom's birthday celebration several years ago. I had lived in the west for many years, and I rarely saw Lorna during our younger years ago, but we are about 15 years different in ages. I yearned to know her better because I always admired her late mother, Gloria Jones (Aunt Gloria), the youngest of 8 siblings, with whom I had close contact in the past. Lorna realized that I spoke unintelligibly, and also, I could not understand what she had said so we chatted with each other, writing notes back and forth. Another way, her husband used a word processor on his laptop to chat with me.



Writing notes and signing are my strongest foundation of receptive and expressive language for communication purposes with which I am most comfortable, and I apply them all my life since I learned to sign and write. I consider lipreading an ineffective venue of communciation because it can create misunderstanding and the lack of information which I avoid. I know I would miss a lot of information through lipreading. Moreover, I don't speak well, and I don't want any misunderstanding and misinformation. Thanks to the Lord for the greatest gift - sign language and writing abilities I have been using contendedly.