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Deaf-Blind Reality: Living the Life
Most stories about disabled people are written for the sake of being inspirational. These stories tend to focus on some achievement, such as sports or academics, but rarely do they give a true and complete view of the challenges individuals must deal with on a daily basis. For How does a deaf-blind person interact with hearing-sighted people at a family reunion? How does she shop for groceries? What goes through his mind when he enters a classroom full of non-handicapped peers? These aren’t questions you are likely to find answers to while reading that incredible tale of success. They are, however, issues that a deaf-blind person wishes others understood.
Deaf-Blind Living the Life explores what life is really like for persons with a combination of vision and hearing loss, and in a few cases, other disabilities as well. Editor Scott M. Stoffel presents extensive interviews with 12 deaf-blind individuals, including himself, who live around the world, from Missouri to New Zealand, Louisiana to South Africa, and Ohio to England. These contributors each describe their families’ reactions and the support they received; their experiences in school and entering adulthood; and how they coped with degeneration, ineffective treatments, and rehabilitation. Each discusses their personal education related to careers, relationships, and communication, including those with cochlear implants. Deaf-Blind Reality offers genuine understanding of the unspectacular but altogether daunting challenges of daily life for deaf-blind people.
Deaf-Blind Living the Life explores what life is really like for persons with a combination of vision and hearing loss, and in a few cases, other disabilities as well. Editor Scott M. Stoffel presents extensive interviews with 12 deaf-blind individuals, including himself, who live around the world, from Missouri to New Zealand, Louisiana to South Africa, and Ohio to England. These contributors each describe their families’ reactions and the support they received; their experiences in school and entering adulthood; and how they coped with degeneration, ineffective treatments, and rehabilitation. Each discusses their personal education related to careers, relationships, and communication, including those with cochlear implants. Deaf-Blind Reality offers genuine understanding of the unspectacular but altogether daunting challenges of daily life for deaf-blind people.
304 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 12, 2021
Super interesting look at the life of those in the Deaf-Blind community. Very immersive, encompasses a variety of viewpoints, and a variety of issues.
I do have a couple of critiques:
1. There's a lot of repeated information in the first couple of chapters, due to the organization and focus of the chapters.
2. As part of that, each chapter generally has a section by each of the twelve contributors...and I don't know if I just...wasn't trying hard enough? But I had a hard time keeping track of whose experience was whose.
So overall, I thought that the organization could be improved.
Also, content: reference to sexual relationships, as well as abuse, physical, mental, and sexual.
I think all in all, I'll give this three stars, although I did enjoy reading it, and found it informative.
I do have a couple of critiques:
1. There's a lot of repeated information in the first couple of chapters, due to the organization and focus of the chapters.
2. As part of that, each chapter generally has a section by each of the twelve contributors...and I don't know if I just...wasn't trying hard enough? But I had a hard time keeping track of whose experience was whose.
So overall, I thought that the organization could be improved.
Also, content: reference to sexual relationships, as well as abuse, physical, mental, and sexual.
I think all in all, I'll give this three stars, although I did enjoy reading it, and found it informative.
July 15, 2019
This book was a collection of stories from people who are deaf-blind to varying degrees and how they've coped in a variety of different ways, from childhood to medical care, to complete regression of their sensory organs. I wouldn't even begin to imagine what these people were going through without this book. I liked the book because the stories belonged to the people involved. There wasn't much assistance from the editor, though he did have a very good intro during every topic, and an outro. This book is for anyone curious about this disability and who want to know what troubles deaf-blind people face, and even a little about the accessibility and assistance you can provide to help make a deaf-blind person's life easier.
February 10, 2021
Heart wrenching truth
Deeply emotional stories from the horrors to the good moments. Worth a read to change your perspective on life as a deaf blind individual.
Deeply emotional stories from the horrors to the good moments. Worth a read to change your perspective on life as a deaf blind individual.
February 27, 2016
If you are looking for the usual inspiring story about a person with a disability and how they managed to overcome it, don't read this book. What you will find here are true stories by actual deafblind people. They don't hold back or sugar-coat the difficulty of life with this dual sensory impairment. The tales are honest, harsh and sometimes heartbreaking. But this is the reality of being deafblind. Mr. Stoffel' snook would make a great textbook for any ASL or Deaf culture class.
May 23, 2016
As an SSP in training, I found this book to be extremely helpful. Instead of focusing on feel good stories, the contributors discussed the every day reality of living with dual sensory decline. I think this should be required reading for any SSP and would be a great inclusion to Deaf Culture classes.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews