Do deaf people ever wish they were hearing?

By Marta Belsky
Tuesday, November 1, 2022

This article is by Marta Belsky. Marta is Deaf and a third generation ASL user. She has been teaching ASL for 30 years and enjoys sharing her native language with new users.

We live in a hearing world. Everywhere we go, people all around us speak and hear. But those of us who are born deaf don’t miss sounds nearly as much as hearing people think we do. You can’t miss something you haven’t experienced. Many people who are born deaf see themselves as a whole person, not with broken ears. We have full lives just like hearing people.

However, for late deafened people it is a different matter; I’m sure they do miss their hearing since they were accustomed to hearing prior to becoming deaf.

Probably one of the worst things about being deaf has nothing to do with residual hearing but more to do with society’s attitudes toward the deaf. So…given the challenges and discrimination Deaf people face, do they ever wish they could hear…maybe sometimes.

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About the Author

Marta Belsky is Deaf and a third generation ASL user. She has been teaching ASL for 30 years and enjoys sharing her native language with new users. Marta is on the Lansing Community College Interpreter Training Program Advisory Board and has also been a board member for the Michigan Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and the Michigan Chapter of American Sign Language Teachers Association.