Image copyright Kateweb on Flickr

When most people hear me say I'm deaf, I normally get treated like this:

They raise their voice to ultrasonic levels, which makes my hearing aid cry for help and distorts any sound for the next week.

They over-exaggerate the movement of their lips, which only makes me think they're speaking Klingon.

 They nod, smile then...walk away! What? Why? I'm deaf, not a harbourer of some airborne disease which will kill you instantly!

 They use mock sign language. Again, what the heck? It's NOT sign language, and it will NOT help me understand you better! Just put your arms by your sides and speak to me like any other normal human being!

Other things that bug me are:

Mutterers! Everybody hates them, nobody can understand them, and lecturers seem to think that people are going to get a degree by listening to them mutter.

Also, lecturers believing I need to sit at the front and in the middle of the class, suggesting loudly that I do so. If I have found I can hear from the back, then leave me to sit at the back!

Anybody sitting at the front on their own in school and college was considered a billy-no-mates and for the love of god why would you wish that on a twenty year old?

And, please stop breaking up the conversation to ask me a million things about my hearing aid, the way I hear and what sounds different. How the blooming heck should I know what it sounds like when I’m deaf without it?

 And at least wait until the current conversation is over, I don’t mind then. I only told you I was deaf so you'd stop mumbling!

So, in the future please remember: just because I’m deaf it doesn’t mean that I can’t understand what you’re saying. Just treat me like everyone else.