Hearing Woman Chooses Cued Speech over Sign Language

Here's an interesting blog I came across that was made about two weeks ago. It's about a hearing woman who wanted to be a sign language interpreter but she was inspired by her Deaf friend who only used cued speech to communicate visually with her Deaf friends and parents, or so it seems, wanted to become a cued speech transliterator instead.

When I was young I wanted to be a Sign Language Interpreter. Well that has changed and now I know that I can become fluent in about three months if I use it daily. How exciting. I am hoping to become fluent and then surprise my friend and her family. It will be great!

How inspirational it must have been for this young hearing woman who wanted to learn cued speech so badly she dropped the idea to learn sign language! Whoever this Deaf person is she is a shining example that cued speech can be successfully used on its own merits to educate others about value of using cued speech. And show that she can communicate with her other Deaf friends who are also cuers, and inspire so many others to take up the cause for cued speech. She sounds like a Deaf person who is proud of her rich Deaf cued speech history and was willing to share her experiences with her hearing friend.

Also, we have "Aaron" who is Deaf and uses cued speech mostly when communicating or talking with his Deaf or hearing friends. He knows very little about ASL. In his blog he decided to raise his future baby by teaching and communicating him exclusively with cued speech and not ASL. He has made an informed decision to go that route.

Looks like a person can be a Deaf person without the need to learn ASL and still be successful with the English language . I guess the criteria to be a Deaf person isn't all about ASL or the culture around it. It's about communication choice. Go figure. It has never been the case about culture. Or is it?

(note : do you know where I'm going with this one here folks?)