By Zulkifil Aminu Adam
Over the years, people with hearing loss, primarily those who cannot speak, particularly the uneducated ones, experience the stereotype of being naturally aggressive. And that’s nothing but a misunderstanding that continues to remain despite continuous awareness against it.
The terming of deaf people as aggressive is not only done by ordinary people but also by lecturers, doctors, and even special educators. And as a matter of fact, the absence of a psychological approach in how people reflect on this matter leads them to conclude so grossly incorrect.
Imagine you cannot hear and you cannot talk. And you’re living in a community that has deprived you of the privilege of effective communication and self-expression, given the fact that nobody knows how to communicate with you. So you will surely be lonely and depressed. And then an incident happened where you were maltreated and stigmatised.
Psychologically, people naturally react and respond to treatments directly to indirectly. They speak and complain to defend themselves and their dignity when mistreated. But you’re deaf and can’t open your mouth to exercise self-expression. You can’t say, “I don’t like how you treat me. Please, treat me with respect.” At that point? What would you do?
You will think of what to do to ensure the person who maltreats or stigmatises you learn a lesson. A deaf person has three options: exhibiting frustration or using physical violence to respond to the treatment they received, and the third option is crying. The weak do the last chance because that’s the only thing left for them. They will always look for a language that the people who maltreat them will understand, i.e. crying, showing their frustration, or applying violence.
Deaf people are not aggressive. Instead, they use aggression as a defence, a means of self-expression, or a way of showing their inner disapproval because they often have no other means of communicating their feelings to people who don’t have a genuine knowledge of the deaf or sign language.
As long as deaf people can effectively communicate and have a mutual understanding with a person, the person will surely realise that they are no different from normal people who possess various traits, both positive and negative.
The only thing the Deaf needs from their family, colleagues, and society is attention and understanding. And these two require the presence of effective communication. For this reason, the Deaf continues to spread the knowledge of sign language and continuously create awareness and advocacy, for they know that the most powerful method for eliminating the conflicts between them and normal people is to connect both with the wire of communication. It is to bridge the communication gap that disconnects the two communities.
II have talked with different deaf children and older ones regarding their stay with their families. All of them expressed a disheartening amount of loneliness and anxiety, the cause of which is the iota of attention they receive at home that is inadequate and depressingly isolating, harming their lives. Yet, at the same time, it stays unnoticed by their family members.
Moreover, when deaf family members attempt to bring it up, they hardly get the attention they expect. Even if they do, once another family member interrupts, that’s always the end of the conversation. Their effort to retrieve the attention that deviated from them to another family member often fails, making several deaf family members give up on discussions with their parents and siblings.
Zulkifil Aminu Adam is a 100-level student at Bayero University, Kano. He can be reached via zulqeepil19@gmail.com.
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