Those of us that suffer from a lack of this important sense of hearing often find ourselves included among people with disabilities and are often excluded from many activities because of it. Yet there are so many things that we are still quite capable of doing that does not require the need to be able to hear.
It seems as if there are still so many social and peer obstacles that need to be surmounted in order that the many disability views that still exist can be disassembled. This is an important aspect of life that can be taken into consideration by those not afflicted with this particular physical handicap so that we can join in with others in enjoying life to the full.
As an example, in sports today there are many participants that have certain physical limitations that they have overcome in a quite public fashion by way of the immense popularity of the modern Paralympics. To such an extent has this aspect of sports been raised in the public eye that the media and the advertising machine that drives it are fully behind it.
Of course there are also some aspects of life that will by definition naturally exclude us from participating in simply because they are wholly aural in nature. Probably the most obvious examples of this is music, since it cannot be translated into a visual entity that would enable the hearing challenged to appreciate it as it really is.
If that concept is difficult to grasp, consider how impossible it would be to describe the colour blue to a person blind from birth that has never experienced the sense of sight. There would just be no way to enable such a person to use any of their remaining senses to decipher and comprehend what colour is.
It is the same with deafness when there is no point of reference or experience to draw from that would allow the person to comprehend sound, especially musical sound. Of course many people that suffer total deafness are able to sense the physical aspect of music, such as a drum beat or the sound waves of low notes such as from a bass guitar or an amplified bassoon or cello.
However, there are many more ways in which a person without the sense of hearing can participate in certain aspects of life that have traditionally excluded them. It is not necessary to be able to hear to be able to engage in most sports, to work at most jobs, to enjoy most types of vacation or to simply be accepted as an equal in social situations.
Reference: National Institute on Deafness
