> 0n (02 Aug 05) George Pope wrote to Cindy Haglund...

 >  GP> On (01 Aug 05) Cindy Haglund wrote to all...
 >  CH> Hi there everybody. Ready for a little able rant?

 >  GP> Always! *G*

 >  CH> Once upon a time oh 11 (!) years ago when I had just given up on
 >  CH> hearing 'aids' (there has to be a better more apt name for those
 >  CH> things...)

 >  GP> why?  Seems that "hearing aid" is straightforward
& accurate. . .

 >  It's a misnomer George because so many hearing abled
 > people think
 > it's an Instant Cure-all. It's not.

 > Some ignorant (expletive deleted) hearing people think
 > if you are
 > wearing a hearing aid you should be able to hear
 > perfectly.

 > It's not like with eyeglasses. More is involved than

Eyeglasses aren't any better or different, really.  For some, they can make
vision normal or at least better.  For others, nothing helps.

 > just volume. No
 > hearing aid no matter how fancy can deal perfectly
 > with tone loss and
 > background noise.

Also, no hearing aid can make you hear what you are unable to hear at any
volume--just as glasses can't help a person who is unable to see light.

 >  GP> Would you prefer, "Aural Assister"? *G*

 >  Nah.. The problem isn't in the ugly name. It's in the
 > ugly attitude
 > attached to it.

 >  GP> So is telephone sex = "aural sex"? *G*

 >  Sound sexy!  but just as misleading.

 >  GP> Oh, related, are TTY operators forbidden to convey sexual stuff, or do
 >  GP> they just read whatever's written?

 >  No idea but I wouldn't do that... :) People on both
 > sides complain
 > ops are crabby and rude well that's often due to
 > having to deal with
 > crabby rude users (both the hearing and the hoh/deaf
 > person.)

 >  GP> and just got my TTY (very happy until I found out many
 >  CH> hearing folks "won't use them because they don't (gasp) want to
 >  CH> (gasp) have to talk through an Operator...(gasp!!!)...- I wrote an

 >   GP> Oh, too damb bad to them!  wah wah wah! Call
 > them a wahhhh-mbulance!

 >  Imagine. Just TRY to imagine my feelings when my
 > mother of all people
 > said "We won't use that... We don't want to talk
 > through an operator'....

 > Dad and several other members of family would use it
 > with me a bit but
 > they could NOT for the LIFE OF ME talk to ME directly.
 > They spoke to
 > the operator and treated me like a third party. It
 > didn't matter how
 > many times I or the operator explained how to talk to
 > me directly. You
 > may as well have been talking to a brick wall. My
 > sister and mother in
 > law were the only ones who could do it right. I used
 > it only once to
 > conduct business (calling our vet) and got hun g up on
 > because the
 > receptionist thought I was as a telemarketer...

Family, friends, and co-workers, yes.  It's nice to be able to hear the
voices of family and friends, but it wears very thin very quickly when you
have to keep asking for repetitions, and many times still can't understand
the critical word even when they spell it, with regular telephone
communications.  These people lots of times disdain email or more than the
one annual Christmas letter.

 > I was on top of the world about getting this TTy
 > thinking I'd be able
 > to chat with anyone I wanted to on the phone. NOPE!
 > NOPE! Talk about
 > having your bubble burst.
 > ..................

 >  CH> Can you help it though? THEY put it there. The ones who refuse to meet
 >  CH> us half way with our efforts to ease communication with them.

 >  GP> Why not write a follow-up article explaining this further POV?

 >  shrug. The mag is gone Lemon Twist I think it was
 > called. More a
 > pamphlet than a magazine. Maybe I'll do a search on
 > other such
 > magazines. I don't want to be militant about this but
 > I do get very
 > angry about Ignorance about disabilities. You'd think
 > College Educated
 > persons would know better? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I've
 > seen more
 > compassion from a rock than some of these people. I
 > don't think
 > therefor level of  education has anything to do with
 > being considerate and
 > caring....

 >  GP> And can I get a copy of your original article, please? (in email okay,
 >  GP> if you prefer)

 >  I no longer have it. It was okay but not that good.
 > It just pointed
 > out how TTY's open doors for the hearing impaired.
 > Well it does, but
 > only for other hearing impaired persons and the FEW
 > hearing people who
 > can look beyond their own bleeping self conscious
 > selfishness. There
 > are not too many of those around either.
 > ........

 >  CH> Perhaps the better thing to do is to communicate the way you are able
 >  CH> with those willing and write off the rest who are too self centered to
 >  CH> even try.
 >  GP>  CH>
 >  CH> End of rant. What say.

 >  GP> I think you said it all in that second last sentence
("Perhaps...") ;)

 >  Yeah. Right on.


 > Cindy

 > ... Ever since I gave up hope, I feel much better.

Yep.  If they won't understand or change, move on.

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