{"id":27007,"date":"2014-04-08T21:46:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T02:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=27007"},"modified":"2014-04-08T21:46:33","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T02:46:33","slug":"common-ground-listening-to-others-helps-us-all-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2014\/04\/08\/common-ground-listening-to-others-helps-us-all-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Ground: Listening to others helps us all out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Common Ground: Listening to others helps us all out<\/strong><\/p>\n

by<\/span> Chante warren<\/p>\n

April 08, 2014<\/p>\n

Graduating senior Tammy Garner, 18, wears a hearing aid, reads lips, can use sign language and she talks.<\/p>\n

Her biggest challenge has been to show those who can hear that she is just as smart, capable and intelligent as they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere I go, it\u2019s hard for deaf people to communicate (with the hearing),\u201d she says. \u201cSome (hearing people) make you feel unwelcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s often asked what it feels like to be deaf.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut your head underwater,\u201d she offers.<\/p>\n

Garner will graduate in May from the Louisiana School for the Deaf. But she is cautious and troubled about stereotypes harbored toward people with hearing impairments.<\/p>\n

Garner thinks the best fix is this: \u201cI want to know your world, and I want you to know my world so that we can mix it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garner, who this year landed starring roles in \u201cGrease\u201d and \u201cAlice in Wonderland,\u201d has been accepted into the Rochester National Technical Institute for the Deaf.<\/p>\n

She has huge aspirations. She plans to study accounting and wants to be a banker and an interpreter for the deaf.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing-impaired people do bank,\u201d she says. \u201cThe banks need employees who can do sign language and work with deaf people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garner\u2019s classmate Malakia Gowan, a senior honor student and athlete, has won national awards in sporting events. She wants to major in pharmaceuticals at the Rochester Institute.<\/p>\n

Fear, she says, is an impediment between hearing people and deaf people.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocialization is a big part of learning how to be accepted,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

I remember as a young girl watching a group of hearing-impaired teenagers skating, using their hands to communicate. They laughed and horsed around as much as everyone else on the rink.<\/p>\n

I was amazed. It was a simple encounter, but it taught me at an early age that hearing-impaired people do the same things as the rest of us.<\/p>\n

They just communicate in different ways.<\/p>\n

Garner says she hopes that people will judge her less on her disabilities and more for her abilities.<\/p>\n

Technology has helped even the playing field for those with hearing impairments.<\/p>\n

Thanks to smartphones<\/span> and texting, video calls and Skyping, hearing-impaired teens and adults can communicate more easily with people in the hearing world, says Pamela Ross, career and transition coordinator at LSD.<\/p>\n

Garner\u2019s experiences remind us that people in general all have similar interests and needs.<\/p>\n

People with disabilities simply want us to understand their world and take the time to get to know them \u2014 something we all want.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t push us down,\u201d Garner says. \u201cWe are equal.<\/p>\n

Chante Dionne Warren is a freelance writer. She can be reached at chantewriter@hotmail.com.<\/p>\n

SOURCE:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/theadvocate.com\/features\/people\/8809245-123\/common-ground-listening-to-others<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Common Ground: Listening to others helps us all out by Chante warren April 08, 2014 Graduating senior Tammy Garner, 18, wears a hearing aid, reads lips, can use sign language and she talks. Her biggest challenge has been to show…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[4621,21363,511,153,2750,21367,613,954,8992,21368,1519,416,21369,21365,191,1541,21366,21364],"class_list":["post-27007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-article","tag-chante-warren","tag-disabilities","tag-hearing-aid","tag-hearing-impaired","tag-hearing-impairments","tag-louisiana","tag-louisiana-school-for-the-deaf","tag-lsd","tag-malakia-gowan","tag-national-technical-institute-for-the-deaf","tag-ntid","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-read-lips","tag-sign-language","tag-smartphones","tag-stereotypes","tag-tammy-garner"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-71B","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25711,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2014\/01\/01\/deaf-action-center-returns-to-its-core-focus-louisiana\/","url_meta":{"origin":27007,"position":0},"title":"Deaf Action Center returns to its core focus – Louisiana","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"January 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Deaf Action Center returns to its core focus Shreveport facility enlists technology to try to increase interpreter pool December 2, 2013\u00a0 Ronald Williams finds companionship and conversation at a Shreveport center that serves the deaf. 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