Ok, so every once in a while I will have people come up to me and ask if I’m deaf. Usually they turn out to be ASL students and want to practice their sign language skills or they’re deaf themselves. Which is great.
During my time in NYC I had a few random people come up to me and ask if I was deaf for no apparent reason.
One day I took the subway into the city and had gotten off at a stop. I was walking upstairs while a guy was walking downstairs. It wasn’t busy and was just the 2 of us at that time. My hair was also down and he couldn’t see my hearing aids. I wasn’t doing anything to suggest that I was deaf. It’s not like I walked around the city signing to myself. 😉 He didn’t make eye contact or anything with me. Right after we passed each other on the stairs, he tapped me on my shoulder. When I turned around, he verbally asked if I was deaf. When I nodded my head “yes,” he just turned back around and kept walking down the steps.
Another example was at a NSGC conference (not this year’s conference) where someone was watching me and Ashley signing. She walked up to me and signed “Are you deaf?” I replied, “yeah.” Then she just turned away and walked away.
And even to this day it still bugs me who she was! It’s one thing to come up to me and strike up a conversation with me after asking if I’m deaf. It’s another thing to just randomly walk up to me and ask if I’m deaf and then leave me hanging. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it a bit odd.
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