Chapter 40

In this chapter, I learned the surprising fact that deaf people refer to non deaf people with the term, "hearing(s)". This was surprising to me because as a non deaf person, I have never considered myself to be hearing. I think that it is extremely easy for non deaf people to just presume that they are the norm and that only those different from them need to specifically be described as being deaf. However, this is the same scenario for those in the Deaf community, who feel the need to distinguish the fact that non deaf people are "hearing". "Hearing can describe attitudes, mindsets, lifestyles, values, and even culinary preferences" (pg 254). This chapter helped me to see a small glimpse of what deaf people go through when it comes to being labeled. In addition, I was introduced to another term, hearo, which "describes a deaf person who apes hearing people" (pg 255).