Submitted by Elle
As of 2016, approximately 12.8% of the US population were disabled. That’s about 42 million people, including many who are functionally deaf (have hearing loss to a handicapping degree). Comparatively, about 37.5 million adults in the US have some sort of hearing impairment. Hearing impairment can range from a slight decline in hearing quality late into life to an absolute lack of sound from birth. Even if you don’t know someone who is considered handicapped by their deafness, the chances are high that you know at least someone, such as a neighbor or grandparent, who is hard of hearing (has partial hearing loss). Nobody really stops to think of the real everyday troubles of being deaf other than “Oh, you can’t hear? That stinks.” We are a group of seventh graders from Windward school working on CBL (Challenge Based Learning), an annual science project part of our curriculum in which we are challenged to create a solution to a real-world problem in the community of our choosing based on the year’s theme. We narrowed down our topic from the theme of “Movement” to human movement, to disability, to sensory disabilities, and most recently, to deafness. We will close in further as we identify a smaller issue within the deaf community we wish to solve. But still remains the question: “Why deafness? And why should I care?” To answer this, take a moment to step into the shoes of Lucy, a close family friend of one of our group members. She is smart, amicable, and has taken upon her the exhausting job of raising an eight-year-old and a six-year-old. She is also functionally and completely deaf. Let’s say that her husband is out, the kids are busy, and she’s lonely. She can't just call a friend. She can just text someone, but she won't be alerted when someone responds by the ding of a notification. She doesn't mind. It just seems like normal life to her. In fact, she, like many members of the Deaf community, doesn't consider herself to be handicapped. But the fact of the matter is that, even though she deals with it like any other person deals with any other problem, a lot of really simple things we take for granted are a bit harder when you don't have access to one of your five senses. Our names are Alex, Arya, and Elle. We are trying to help our community, our friends and family, because it takes everyday people like you, me, or Lucy to solve everyday problems.
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