Communication is my enemy. I was born Deaf and struggled to have effective communication with hearing people. American Sign Language is my primary language so, English is my second language. It is not easy to communicate with someone who doesn’t know Deaf or different cultures. “When the receiver understands what the sender means, successful communication has occured.” (Abramson & Moran, 2018).
Communication is effective if the receiver understands what the senders are saying. “There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to communication, nor is there a “typical” deaf person.” (Communicating With Deaf Individuals, 2019). There is no perfect way to communicate with a Deaf person or someone who speaks a different language. There are many ways to effectively communicate with a Deaf person, write and pen, gestures, texting, technology, and American Sign Language interpreter if available.
“Effective visual communication relies on a user-friendly setting.” (Communicating With Deaf Individuals, 2019). Therefore, the best effective communication in the background is to have fewer people around. Also, as for a hearing person, it is essential to have a proper appearance like neutral color clothes, nails, hair, etc. So, Deaf people won’t be distracted by noise background. For example, when I had my road test to get my ’driver’s license, I requested an American Sign Language interpreter. Unfortunately, they didn’t provide one but referred me to a location where one of the workers is fluent in sign language. Unfortunately, she wasn’t fluent or certified to be an interpreter, she had long and neon nails, so there were distractions during the test. “For instance, if we are being even mildly egocentric when encoding our message to someone who isn’t fluent in the language we are communicating in, the risk for misinterpretation is multiplied because that person already has some trouble with general message interpretation simply because that person is not as familiar with a language different than their original one.” (Challenges of Communication in a Global Context, 2021).
Again, communication is my enemy, but it is essential for my future career as a therapist. It would be easy if you were open-minded and effort to communicate with someone in a different language or culture. It would be great if you know more than one language and understand other cultures, but please don’t be afraid to tell the truth, if you’re not fluent in their language. It will be appreciated if you’re honest.
References:
Abramson, N. R., & Moran, R. T. (2018). Managing Cultural Differences: Global Leadership for the 21st Century (10th ed.). Routledge.
Challenges of Communication in a Global Context. (2021). Penn State. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847668
Communicating With Deaf Individuals. (2019). National Deaf Center. https://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/sites/default/files/Communicating%20with%20Deaf%20Individuals.pdf
Defining Communication. (2021). Penn State. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847666
Hi Everyone,
I appreciate all of your comments, and I’m glad that I can help you understand better about communicating with Deaf person/people.
Some Deaf people can read lips or can’t. For example, my sister is Deaf too, and she can read lips and talk. However, she was interested in having speech therapy sessions, and I wasn’t interested, so I’m not good with reading lips and speaking.
I saw an article and vlogs from a deaf lady’s incident at Dunkin Donut; unfortunately, it happened to me many times. It is very frustrating that we have to experience this in many places. Some places accept mobile ordering, so I always do that and have it ready to be picked up, but it is unsuccessful. Most of the time, I would have paper and pen to communicate with hearing people. But, again, unfortunately, some of them are not opened minds, so it’s a big struggle for us to experience who is not understanding our Deafness.
There are many ways to communicate with the Deaf, but I have some preferences. I like to communicate either on paper and pen or use my phone. It depends on the place. If it’s a doctor or hospital, I would rather have an interpreter.
Laura,
Thank you so much for sharing your personal story. I have honestly never thought about wearing neutral colors because they can be distracting to others while communicating. When we are communicating there are many errors that can occur and cause miscommunication such as biases and so on but I will now become more aware of what I am wearing. Thank you again for sharing your story and as a listener I have gained another perspective.
Hello Laura,
I think your post embodies how important effective communication is, in particular when a sender is encoding messages. For instance you mention the driving test and how the person assigned to you had long nails and neon nails. Cleary this can muddle the message and leave the decoder confused. Even if the encoder didn’t intend for that to be the case *PSU, 2021).
I think this speaks to egocentrism as well. For example just because you as the sender of a message understands it, doesn’t mean that the person receiving message will view/understand it the same way.
One of my good friends growing up, had parents that were both deaf. I learned early on some of the struggles that they went through with regards to presenting their opinion/message etc. His Mom was someone that I had to have a pen/paper around, but his Dad could read lips very well, and essentially could voice what I had to say, so long as we were looking at each other. Allowing him to see my lips move, so we could communicate.
In my opinion your post speaks to inclusion as well. As a person of the world we have to understand that not everyone looks/speaks/ or hears in the same way. And just because of a particular reason their opinions should not be thrown out. When we as a people do this, it limits our ability to grow as individuals, and in business or leadership may limit us to ideas that we already have. Based on having a closed mind (PSU, 2021).
This is a great post, and especially resonates with me because I have been exposed to folks who were also hearing impaired.
I am not sure if you saw the article from the young lady at Dunkin Donuts recently that was trying to order a coffee, but it is just another example of why we should go the extra mile to understand differences!
I have a question for you, that hopefully you can expand on.
How would you like to see, or how would you like people who are not deaf communicate with you?
Is there an initial attempt, or method that is widely accepted?
I always went to paper and pen because I found it the easiest, but with anything it is not always about us.
Any insight would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Bill Egan
References:
Challenges of Communication in a Global Context. (2021). Penn State. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847668
Defining Communication. (2021). Penn State. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847666
While communication may be your enemy, you are very effective at communicating concepts I had never stopped to think about. While I cannot control what may be distracting about myself to another person, let alone someone who is hearing impaired, it is now something that I think I can try to be more aware of when communicating. For many of us sensory overload is so easy because it is in a sense part of the norm now when communicating, especially for those of us who may be neuro-divergent. I can hardly carry a conversation without losing interest of being distracted by a dog or some bright lights, but I generally jump right back into the conversation. I can only imagine that a situation like that is exacerbated by differences in communication styles, languages, etc. Thanks for sharing this post.
I would think the translating from ASL to English is difficult as well. I studied ASL and the sentence structure is different. You don’t use “the” “of” “as” etc when communicating in ASL but you do use it in English so converting back and forth can cause miscommunications. I would also think, how it is not different when communicating with someone who speaks Spanish or French or German it is difficult when people use a word in the wrong way like “that is cool” would have a different meaning to someone who is not a native English speaker vs another language.
I think to a conversation I had with my 75 year old dad just 2 days ago. He looks at his phone and says ” that is so absurd, why would someone send something like that? Why would you send that to someone?” My initial response was did someone text you something vulgar? He walks his phone over and says I texted your mom asking when she would be home and she said 8. I told her I would wait to eat with her and she responded :). Why would she send that?
I laughed and said that is a smiley face. He said what? How would you know that? I turned his phone sideways and said because it is the universal symbol for a smiley face. He had never seen that before. It is amazing how something so simple can cause a breakdown in communication.