CHAPTER 34:

"A deaf woman in my office does not speak. However, we do hear actual understandable words from her once in a while. Has someone has worked with her in speech? And it is wrong to want her to verbalize?"

Having a conversation with someone who has little speech established can cause confusion or create a desire to communicate more. I'm a server at a resturant and I have come into contact with several deaf people who speak very little, their words are sometimes hard to understand. I am different because instead of wanting a customer to be more verbal I appreciate the fact that the person is trying their best to communicate with me. Hearing people that have no knowledge about deaf people and their culture sometimes are lost and dont know how to communicate with these people, its normal. BUT, a deaf person should never be treated any differently because they can not communicate the way two hearing people can. Virtually, all deaf adults have had a heavy dose of speech and auditory training. Although oral training is part of the TC curriculum, there is no consistent standard of quality. Not every person benefits from from speech training. Good articulation is notoriously difficult both to achieve an maintain, especially for those born deaf or early deafened. Bottom line is that deaf people are everywhere and some know how to pronounce words and others do not. Although it may seem rude to some, wanting these people to verbalize is not wrong rather it is normal.