Deaf History Month on March, 2025: In honor of Woman's History Month who in your opinion is the most historic woman figure?

March, 2025 is Deaf History Month 2025. deafmonth.jpg National Deaf History Month

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I've always been a fan of Helen Keller

Elizabeth I was a woman with power to change the history of her nation in a time when few women had that kind of power..

I also love the (little known) story of a simple peasant girl in Poland during WWII.. Despite the fact that she was only 16 and such action was punishable by instant death, she hid 13 Jews the entire war.. sucessfully.. saving 13 lives with no help other than her 6 year old sister.. That's amazing and courageous too..

But of course, few know Stefania Podgorska's story, so it's not really "historic" And there were many other people who did similar things. (Though few teenagers that did it siinglehandedly, I'm sure!!)

She even kept the Jews hidden when Nazi Nurses moved into her cottage near the end of the war.. imagine how quiet the Jewish men, women, and children had to be with Germans literally under their feet..

How are you remembering the Deaf on National Deaf History Month?

Thanks, Jasin. I will read more about it. I will think about YOU!

Anyone here Deaf or HOH?

My younger sister is hearing impaired. She is 19 and was born with it. She was diagnosed in her first year and got hearing aids at about 7.5 months old. She is deafer than you - she is severely deaf and definitely could not hear the T.V. or an alarm clock without her hearing aids. I used to play the bagpipes and without her hearing aids on it sounded like a faint whistle. She sleeps with her phone strapped around her ankle and the alarm set to vibrate. She also wears her hearing aids all the time. Come Thursday she will even be able to wear them in the water! However, like you, she hated wearing her RF (radio frequency) unit so didn't wear it in her last few years of high school and doesn't wear it at uni.

She finished school last year with results in the top 13% of the state. She is at university and gets excellent results (she got 3 high distinctions and 1 distinction this semester) and also has a part-time job in retail. One of her favourite things to do is to go to musicals (we try sit in the front row as she can then lipread and also hear the sounds actually coming out of the performers' mouths so there isn't any delay). I don't mean to brag (well, okay, maybe a little bit...I am very proud of her!), but I more want to show you that you shouldn't feel sorry for yourself - you can still achieve anything you want to. She did have a little bit of assistance - she went to a fantastic kindergarten that has a special program for deaf children, which really gave her a great start; she had a visiting teacher give her one-on-one sessions once a week through elementary school and then in the last year of high school; and she gets a little bit of extra time in her exams to clarify the meanings of words either by asking someone or checking in the dictionary.

She did study Auslan as a subject in her last 2 years of school. She didn't study a language in high school and in our state you get bonus points for your final marks if you study a language in your last year of school. She also thought it would be an interesting thing to do and it was offered after school at a local high school. She did really enjoy it, but I think really decided as a result that she was glad to be raised in the 'hearing world'. She has a couple of friends who are deaf, but most of her friends are hearing. I think most of her deaf friends are used to getting special treatment because of being deaf and that annoys her. Our older sister who passed away was also severely deaf, so it was considered quite normal in our house!

I agree with the poster above, you DEFINITELY need to have a hearing appointment and get new earmoulds fitted. Your ears never stop growing so your earmoulds probably don't fit properly, hence why they're so uncomfortable. You could also look at the cost of new hearing aids (my sister is lucky as in Australia she can get them for free until she's 26) as they have made a lot of new advancements so you can probably get smaller ones, better colours and possibly even waterproof hearing aids!

As for your question about whether or not your kids would be deaf, it all depends on what is causing your deafness. My family did some genetic testing a few years ago as part of a research project and found out that my sisters' deafness was caused by a bad gene (which was recessive in my mother, so didn't affect her hearing, but bizarrely somehow became dominant in my sisters and skipped me altogether). Basically, your deafness could either be caused by a dominant gene that came from one parent, or by 2 recessive genes, so you would have got one from each parent. Given your family history, I think it's definitely more likely the first.

You have 2 copies of each gene. If your deafness is from a dominant gene, therefore 1 copy of the gene in question is the 'deafness gene'. So your genes would be Dd, where D=deaf, d=not deaf. You pass 1 copy of each gene onto your child. Therefore there is a 50% chance that your child would be deaf if you end up with a hearing guy. If you ended up with a guy who had the same dominant deafness gene as you, there would be a 75% chance that your child would be deaf. There would also be a 25% chance that your child would have two copies of the dominant gene (DD), meaning any of their children would have to be deaf.

However, science is making amazing progress. If you really want to guarantee that none of your children get that gene, you could have IVF and check the embryos beforehand to make sure they only insert ones that will not have the gene. That is something that you and your partner would have to decide on.