Avdism as a crutch excuse?

This "a-wordism" has lately become vulgarized through the repeated abuse of the word, marketing, and just plain ol' fashioned use of the internet to help spread the word. In the main heading of my blog I stated, "Don't use deafness as your crutch. We all face adversity in our life and don't let it become an obstacle but a challenge!" Yet it is true and a sad fact that people are discriminated for what they are and it shouldn't be like that. But that isn't justification to abuse this a-wordism by over-playing this particular discrimination card. Just like when people use the race card for every single supposed racist act when it never happened or existed a la Gates-Crowley Incident. People on both end purposely practice discrimination. Yes, even Deaf people against hearing people, even discriminate against those who prefer to talk despite their deafness. The horrors!

Maybe the answer to this a-wordism will either be that technology becomes so great and prevalent and accessible to all will ensure that this a-wordism wouldn't be an issue since techology would become that great 'equalizer.'

Or perhaps more likely that biotechnology would come early and a cure for hearing loss is made real where all babies born deaf will become hearing through the help of stem cells, thus the decline of Deaf culture and community would occur through attrition in the next 100 years. Some say this cure for babies born deaf won't happen in our lifetime or that it won't happen so "soon" in 10, 20 or 30 years. Or some simply believe it'll never happen and it'll be impossible for the biomedical technology to come up with a cure for hearing loss. Oh, wait, I think the cure for babies born deaf or acquired hearing loss very early on is already beginning in clinical studies this year.

The CBR Center for Regenerative Medicine is collaborating with two leading medical institutions to initiate a research study that would evaluate using a child's own cord blood stem cells to help restore or improve hearing that's been damaged from injury or sickness.

Specifically, we are looking for children under the age of 18 months whose own cord blood is stored at CBR and who have sustained hearing damage...

Regardless, this a-wordism may eventually go away either wholly or to some extent. Just a matter of time. But for the time being, do not use it as crutch and an excuse for your deafness. Certainly we have really dumb hearing people who don't know better but ignorance is not the same thing as accusing them with the a-wordism. Educate them instead.

Adversity or Using Your Deafness as a Crutch?

Location: Dog Canyon on the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico near Alamogordo. February 2008.

I'm revisiting my "adversity" video blog that I did earlier this year and let people know that we all face adversity in our lifetime whether it's now or later. In the things that we do and the circumstances that makes us who we are, diversity is what makes the world go around. Adversity means that you have move past your fears, your shortcomings, your supposed "failures" and pull yourself up by your bootstraps rather than to blame a condition such as deafness for your supposed "short-comings" in your life. Adversity doesn't mean you dwell on your negatives but rather look ahead on the possibilities of what you can do yourself when nobody else will do it for you. It's about not using your condition(s) or what happened in the past as a crutch of an excuse for your defense. No one likes a whiner. It's about being positive in life as you face them over time and not about focusing on the negatives as seen here by one deaf person.

Adversity, we all face them at one time or another. For deaf and hard of hearing people, their adversity is hearing loss. In my case and for many others, the ability to speak and/or listen shouldn't be about the "audacity of hope" on achieving those things. Not with technology we have today or better educational understanding when it comes to early intervention for a deaf child or baby on developing better listening and speaking skills. Those things should be expected as achievable and very reachable goals and not some mundane "audacity of hope" kind of thing we're hearing about today. Maybe 40 years ago but certainly not today. And even less so 10, 20 and 30 years down the road when technology and, especially so, biotechnology will continue to change the landscape for those with hearing loss. But regardless of how you face your own adversity in life and in the case of your deafness, do not use it as a crutch of an excuse by using commonly used words in your vocabulary...."I can't."

You can.

Nobody asking you to be like Mighty Mouse but be yourself and do the best you can.