Who Defines OHL Folks

Editor: By now you're probably aware of OHL Advocacy and our mission of achieving social justice for the Oral Hearing Loss (OHL) Community. (We define the OHL community as consisting of people with hearing loss who prefer spoken language as their primary means of communication. This includes the vast majority of hard of hearing, late-deafened, and oral deaf people.) See http://www.hearinglossweb.com/Issues/Identity/ohl/ohl.htm for more information on the OHL community.

One of our current projects is to try to explain to the world that we are not "deaf lite" or "less deaf". OHL folks and Deaf folks form two separate groups, and we must make the general public understand that. Here's Randy Collins with some of his wisdom on that subject.

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It's my feeling that if WE don't explain to the hearing and Deaf worlds who we are, the hearing and Deaf world will continue to define us in their terms. In essence the fault lies with us if we let the practice continue.

In addition those of us who post to OHL Advocacy, those who belong to SHHH and to ALDA are the exceptions within our world. The vast majority of hard of hearing people do not know who they are. When they finally admit their hearing loss to themselves, they don't know what a hard of hearing person is or how they function. They only know that they are frustrated and angry or depressed.

As all of us have learned - by direct experience - knowing who you are as an OHL person is the key to personal freedom. You are no longer bound by misconceptions about hard of hearing people. You find acceptance in who you are.

Those of us who have an understanding of who OHL people are can help those like us who are struggling with denial and poor self-esteem.

Those of us who acquired a hearing loss at some point after birth have had no real role models, no clear definition, no positive direction to follow concerning hearing loss. For the most part we've had to rely on self-knowledge. How many OHL did you know before you became one yourself? Most of what you knew about them were negative stereotypes. Suddenly you find yourself being one of those people and the world knocks the breath out of you. Who you are at that point is largely defined by hearing people and to a lesser degree by Deaf people. Often their misconceptions support your misconception, and life looks bleak. You don't feel like the stereotypical OHL person, but you must be as you see no other option. If you are lucky, as we all have been, somehow you find your way out. It is a sad fact that most people don't.

If WE can begin to define ourselves we can change our image and we can destroy the stereotype. No one can do it for us. If we don't then hearing people and Deaf people will continue to incorrectly define who we are. As a result our behaviors and expectations will not match theirs and we continue to lose.