J.B.
Inaccessible Environments
I had a rough day; it took me way longer than usual to get home because of train strikes, so I had to use buses to get where I needed to go. This is where my anxiety would flare up because I may not hear announcements or possibly miss something that I will need to know.Â
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For example, trains, because I use them monthly now. It was Saturday night, and one of the announcements was - do you know when you scratch on the chalkboard and it makes that really annoying sound? It was like that. And then I could feel my hearing aids just giving so much feedback.
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Although I wanted to ask someone what it was saying, it's the anxiety behind it, in case I don't hear them. So, I'm trying to figure out how to break that barrier, but I also want to find out information that I know I will need. There's so much to think about there; there are hardly any words to describe it.
Behind every smile of a deaf person, whether it be capital ‘D’ or lowercase ‘d’, is a battle of mental health that no one sees
I'm holding up a frame that's basically showing me in my element. I'm at an event called Deaf Day, and although I'm not very good with signing, I can when I'm there. I know that I can sign and talk, because I know some people do use SSE, Sign Supported English, rather than BSL, but I want to try and get into BSL. But the whole point in that picture is that even behind a smile, there's still 1000 words to be said…behind the smile that something is going on that no one sees.
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Although I know that I'm not alone with deafness, deep down inside me it still feels like I am. Because even though deaf people and those with hearing loss, suffer more with mental health than hearing people, you never know who's around you and who is actually going through that. So going to that event just shows that a lot of people can just go about smiling throughout their day, not knowing what's happening inside someone's brain.
Because being deaf isn’t all sunshine and rainbows…
That picture just shows that deafness can take a toll without anyone knowing.