Aotearoa in 20: Deaf, not dumb - a hard prejudice to shift
Friday, 11 September 2020
It’s not being deaf that’s the challenge, it’s society’s limitations for people who are hearing impaired that makes it hard. Asti Maera shares her story for Aotearoa in 20, a Stuff special project.
I lost my hearing gradually through childhood, now I’m 95 per cent deaf.
I could hear OK through primary school but pretty much from 11, 12 onwards I needed hearing aids full-time. Then when I got to about 15, 16, I was pretty much unable to hear.
I pretty much just gave up at that point. I dropped out of school, I didn’t talk to many people, and I don’t think that’s uncommon for deaf people.
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The hearing aids helped but I didn’t know how bad it was until I got my cochlear implant. I’ve had that four years this December. The implants changed my life completely but I don’t think it’s changed a lot from other people’s perspectives.
I think there are some assumptions when I speak a bit differently. A big one I’ve heard a lot is: ‘Where are you from?’ It’s more the older generation, but a lot of people still say ‘deaf and dumb’. They don’t necessarily mean to be offensive with it, some of them do - so that’s still out there.
I don’t want people to get the wrong impression with having a cochlear implant, I still struggle with hearing.
A lot of other people I know that have implants struggle with having to talk to other people all day, they find it really tiring. Your brain has to re-learn everything, basically from scratch when you’ve been deaf for so long. It’s a lot of work and a lot of focus; you’re constantly trying to have to make sure that you are hearing things.
People think having a cochlear implant is a quick fix, that suddenly I can hear perfectly and if I don’t hear them, they think I’m ignoring them.
I have had co-workers in the past that were like, ‘She’s so rude’.
I don’t hear clearly, it’s kinda like being in the shower or the jug is boiling and your child over in the corner is trying to talk to you.
When I was younger I learnt sign language.
My mum is also completely deaf as well as my grandmother and aunt. Mum got her implant when I was about eight.
With my mum being deaf, it gives me a bit more acceptance over the whole thing.
Over the years, I’ve noticed a shift with younger people that they’re kind of surprised about the lack of support that I had growing up. For them, they learned sign language in class and I never had that. And technology is always improving.
I mean, it is incredible, there’s a thing in my head that helps me hear. I can’t really imagine life without it.
The implant is funded for some in New Zealand; I think it’s down to seven cochlear implants a year for the entire country. They cut the funding right after I got mine. They do fund for children because they have a better success rate. Once you’re 18, there’s very limited funding. For the cochlear implant, I’m pretty sure the surgery is somewhere between $70,000 to $100,000; it’s not cheap. People actually move to Australia to get it done.
I find it really hard to get a job being hearing impaired. I think a lot of people have been reluctant to hire me, even at supermarkets and fast food joints.
I’m not sure what the issue is. I’ve applied for lots of that sort of work and I’ve never got past the first stage. There’s always that little part, if you have any medical history, and I would prefer to be up front about it because I am deaf and I can’t escape that. If they’re not willing to deal with it, I’m probably better off not working for them.
I mean I don’t have a huge education, but you wouldn’t expect that for something like Countdown. I have really great references for the jobs that I have had and yet still, I find it really hard to get a foot in.
I’ve had a number of jobs, most of them have been manual labour including painting, Sealords and dairy farming. I’ve done fibre installations at Chorus, which was actually really great; they’re a pretty good equal opportunity employer.
I’m studying now, in my second semester of a Bachelor of Information Technology at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. It’s been really great; they have really supportive tutors. They’re 100 per cent behind me getting this qualification.
I really want to do that, and get through it, and be able to make a career for myself. I’m getting to 30 and I don’t have a whole great plan ahead of me, but I hope I can start a plan.
Being deaf has definitely impacted me; who I am as a person, emotionally, politically, how I see the world.
The opportunities that I’ve had in my life, it feels like a lot of them have been decided by the fact that I’m deaf.
I feel very strongly about having equal rights for deaf people.
The biggest thing for me right now is getting captions everywhere because there’s absolutely no legislation around captions in New Zealand, and it drives me mad. I can’t even really watch the news because the captions are all chopped up because they barely have enough funding to do them in the first place.
A lot of people don’t learn sign language, not everyone got to go to Van Asch, a school for the deaf.
Not everyone had the opportunity to learn sign language, the same way that a lot of Māori people didn’t get the opportunity to learn te reo.
They learn sign language a bit in schools now, and if I’d been born five years later, I’d probably be doing a lot better.
As told to Carly Gooch for ‘Aotearoa in 20’, a Stuff project.