Pandemic life is deaf daughter’s normal
AMIRAH Syuhada is a 20-year-old woman who was born profoundly deaf; she has been wearing a hearing aid since she was 12.
She lives a comfortable life. Attended special schools. Enjoys Korean movies. Goes for fancy food and meals that go viral when she posts pictures on social media. As a Muslim, she performs solah and prays for things that she wishes for. She has a small circle of people, family and friends, with whom she spends most of her time. She is no different from most of us, really.
The one difference, of course, is that she cannot hear at all. She communicates using sign language, mostly. Sometimes she texts on Whatsapp, especially if she feels that people she’s communicating with are not getting her point. Amirah and her friends use sign language as their first and preferred language, with Bahasa Malaysia as second, and sometimes English as a third language.
When the Covid-19 pandemic began, changed all our lives. I have to work from home and spend more time in the house, and in public my children and I have to remember to keep our distance from people around us. In the first few weeks of the first phase of the movement control order (MCO) in March, we were all a little depressed, trying to cope with the new norms and dealing with how – as my boys felt – our world had
become so much smaller.
And what of Amirah? Amirah seems more relaxed and comfortable than the rest of the family. I asked her how she felt about living with the MCO. Her answer amazed me: She says there is no difference at all. She says that she has been living this way for many years.
She says she has been having
virtual visits with her friends over video conferencing platforms from before. She’s been hanging out on Google Hangouts and making Whatsapp video calls to sign with her friends for the past few years. The only difference the pandemic seems to have made for her is that she’s happy that there are more video conferencing apps so she has more choice.
She has been learning to do all these things independently. She also learned how to paint, how to do doodling, photography, video editing and sewing from Youtube. All by herself, with the audio muted. Not only during the MCO phases but years before that.
She watches her favourite movies and knows all of the platforms where she can get them. She browses Facebook and other social media platforms to get information on fashion and current trends. She knows about the pandemic and understands what is happening around the world. She knows the SOPS and obeys all of the new norms better than I do.
She reminds me during our conversation that since she was young she has not gone out that often. Her casual outings are only with me. She does not have friends in the neighbourhood – she claims that hearing people do not want to make friends with her. I was speechless (though I feel I must discuss this issue in another column).
During this conditional MCO, she has continued going to the convenience store – the only problem she has is, with mask-wearing and 1m distancing, she does not always know when the cashier is talking to her. She only knows people are talking to her by looking at the movements and shapes their mouths make. She normally will respond to that by writing a text on her phone and showing it to the person.
A big component of sign language is reading facial expressions and lip patterns. Without this, it is much more difficult to communicate. There are masks known as “communicator masks” that have a window to allow the lips to be seen. But currently, even medical professionals have little access to these.
A simple solution that I might suggest to any member of the public that deals with the deaf is to look them in the eye when you are talking to them. If you are queueing behind them or in front of them, they may not respond to you immediately.
We understand that it is hard for us to identify the deaf in public. Thus, let us just be mindful of everybody, generally.
Apart from that, the MCO has not isolated the deaf, I believe. In fact, it affects hearing people more. Amirah makes me realise that all this while, the deaf have been living in a small world without complaining. They enjoy life in that world, and that inspires me.
There is a proverb that goes like this: “I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.” In other words, being comfortable and happy in life is actually for us to decide. Obviously, happiness is for us to create.
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