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DISABILITIES

By Daniel J. Vance

Last month, Gary Frazier and I bumped into each other while using the Internet in a library in Milledgeville, Georgia. I was there on business, far away from my home. Fortunately, the person accompanying me knew American Sign Language, which meant Gary and I could communicate effectively.

"I could hear until 1971, when I was 10," Frazier said of the year spinal meningitis nearly took his life. A doctor said that he had two weeks to live. Today, Frazier is 44. Due to the spinal meningitis and subsequent brain surgeries, he also has difficulties with short-term memory and walking.

"But from 1983-88, I was a missionary," he said. "I was told then by different people that my marrying a 'hearing' woman would cause unnecessary cultural problems. For me, that hasn't been true. I am no more part of the Deaf culture than the hearing culture. However, though I get along with both, neither accepts me as a member."

The two cultures are vastly different. He said, "First, Deaf should be spelled with a capital 'D.' Spelling 'Deaf' with a lower case letter is wrong because Deaf people have such a unique culture. We have our own leadership, mainly at Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., and our own language, American Sign Language."

Deaf people even have their own sense of humor. "I've seen Deaf people howling in laughter at a Deaf humorist," he was explaining, "but hearing people at the same event, even with the help of a reverse interpreter, couldn't understand what was going on. Deaf humor is dramatized and hearing people don't understand drama unless it has sound."

He added, "Lastly, many hearing people, even some in my own family, refuse to accept that we Deaf don't consider ourselves handicapped." One example he cited of his deafness not "handicapping" him was his career success in the printing industry, in which the extremely loud printing presses never negatively affected his work performance.

Amazingly, though completely unable to hear, he took drum lessons in college. "Mike Kinard, my teacher, was the only person who believed I could learn drums," he said. "He showed me that I could remember songs by understanding rhythm. In eight months, I learned three fills of 4/4 tempo, two of 3/4 tempo, and one of 6/8. I didn't learn much in 2/2 because I didn't have the speed or stamina to master it."

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