[Mad Dawg]

Certainly some deaf people have made a sort of "deaf pride" doctrine according to which deafness is not a handicap, it's just a difference. It is an ideological division. As someone with a very mild "difference" -- I'm red/green colorblind -- it just seems silly to me. I know I miss things because of a lack of the ability to make certain distinctions (drop a tool dipped in that red plastic stuff in green grass, and I'm not going to find it) and I'm sure that deaf people miss stuff that hearing people don't miss -- important stuff.

Sure seems like a handicap to me.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

It is a definite handicap and the deaf community has a distinct culture. It is hard to explain just how "different" they are. (Like trying to label people as normal-- an impossibility.) But I will say that hearing people can dance around the periphery of the group, however they will never be accepted into the group.

I attended Madonna University in Michigan, known for its deaf program. Deaf students from Ontario, Canada literally took over the dorms and the campus. The hearing were outnumbered. I found it to be an interesting mix of people.

When it came to political correctness, their definition of it, and their defense of all things deaf... I admit to being perplexed. That said, they weren't helpless people. They were as competent as the next person when it came to ability and skills, not related to their handicap. They saw themselves as capable people.