What NOT To Say To A Deaf Person

12 Awkward one-liners Deaf people often experience

It is fairly common for Deaf individuals to get the strangest comments from people who do not have any hearing loss. This is my contribution to the never-ending list of awkward one-liners Deaf people get. Some comments are just hilarious while others come off as a bit more disturbing. Honestly, I don't think these people were thinking when they blurted out some of these lines. Any Deaf person can confirm to hearing at least some variation of these classic lines.

1. “You’re Deaf? You don’t look Deaf.”

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I was unaware that being Deaf had a direct correlation with our looks. Deafness has a dress code!? Why didn't the official Deaf society notify us any sooner? This leads us into our next one-liner.

2. “No way, you’re Deaf? But you're so pretty!”

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Again, the idea of creating a correlation between beauty and how able-bodied a person is is just hilarious on it's own. Seriously though, have you ever even seen Nyle DiMarco?

3. “You’re Deaf? Oh… [turns around and walks away]”

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People sometimes go into shock when they meet their first Deaf person. The most common reactions are freezing up, ignoring us, or walking away. You would have thought that deafness was some sort of disease.

4. “Oh my god, you’re Deaf? I’m so sorry to hear that!”

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Oh the irony, practically self-explanatory.

5. "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!"

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Yelling at a deaf person will not improve communication. Oh, how we wish it was that easy. It is best to articulate and be straight forward. When in doubt, paper and pen is always the way to go!

6. “But you have a cochlear implant (or hearing aids), so you’re not really Deaf”

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Our hearing scores, doctors, and surgeons really beg to differ. Honestly, by law most of us are considered to be Deaf. Of course we are all entitled to our opinions.

7. "Can you read my lips?"

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We wish it was that simple. Even with perfect lip-reading (which btw is quite rare), the human brain can only understand up to 30% of the English language via lipreading. Check out this video if you want to know more about it.

8. “If you are Deaf, how can you speak?”

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This one is interesting and could even be viewed as offensive since it subtly implies that every Deaf person is mute. We didn't go through all those years of speech therapy for nothing! It's always important to remember that we live in a world full of unique experiences. All Deaf people have their own unique experiences, just like hearing people!

9. “How do you tell people you’re Deaf?”

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Yes, this is literally asked right after we tell them we are Deaf.

10. “It’s so amazing that your SO chose to stay with you even though you are Deaf”

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Yes, thank goodness. It's not like we are together because we love each other or anything.

11. “How did you discover you were Deaf?”

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Uh, when we couldn't hear? Just offer a counter question back: how did you discover you were hearing?

12. “Wow, you're deaf? I would just end my life if I were you.”

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This one is the most disturbing. It is always healthy to consider people's intentions when they say something, but honestly there is no positive intention from this statement. It gives little to no contribution to the conversation. Also, if a deaf person was going through a serious depression over their current state of hearing, wouldn't that be the LAST thing they would want said or suggested to them? DUH!

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