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From: SLP Graduate Student, NYU
Date: 18 Oct 2006
Time: 14:18:23 -0500
Remote Name: 128.122.26.177
Hello Russ, I was very moved by your article and very enlightened on how you turned your disability into ability. I am hearing impaired and I too once avoided talking not because of my speech but because I was afraid that I would not hear the other person. I stayed away from social events and conversations with more than one person. In some ways I still find myself staying to myself because of that same fear. After a while you get tired of saying, 'excise me, what did you say' or 'huh'. People begin to think that you're stupid and that you don't listen and don't understand. In my case its that I can't hear, but people have very little patience for people with disabilities. So I mostly stay to myself. The truth of the matter is that some people never really understand unless they are going through it. More importantly, I respect your bravery and I hope that one day I too will find a way to look at my hearing loss as a gift. That will be my most rewarding achievement. I was wondering, did you have any friends that stuttered while you were in school? I developed alot of secondary behaviors to hide the fact that I have a hearing loss, such as noding, ignoring people, replying yes most of the time and changing the subject. What were some of your secondary behaviors? Do you still have any? Was life as lonely for you as it sometimes is for me?