Brotheryellow

Forgetting he was deaf, there was no way David Jonsson could be Deaf. So, not fitting in, he quits wearing hearing aids for 10 years after college. But the problems with society continued until he identified with being Deaf. In “You Are Deaf, Congratulations”, he reveals his anger and his humor, with stories and feelings of his experience discovering his Deafhood and unveiling Audism.

Being mainstreamed with hearing classmates, David was taught to act hearing. Armed with a hearing aid and instructed to sit up front and lipread, he was told he was fixed.

But knowing that life was going to be a struggle, he would just have to work harder. Identified as Hard-of-Hearing, and trying to be a hearing person, but failing, David finally explores the dark side… identifying as Deaf! But not without controversy in the hearing community and the Deaf community.

How to BE Deaf is what nobody taught him, so he had to learn about Deaf Culture on his own. This book will help you make sense of society so you can be happier. It helps to know who you are, so you can navigate in this world more independently, and understand why some interactions are so frustrating.

The oppression of Audism is “the notion that one is superior based on one’s ability to hear or to behave in the manner of one who hears, or that life without hearing is futile and miserable, or an attitude based on pathological thinking which results in a negative stigma toward anyone who does not hear.”

Those who see deaf as a disability, such as audiologists, want to fix you with hearing aids and cochlear implants to force you into listening and speaking, while discouraging sign language.

Using harsh language like cultural genocide and epistemic violence, David’s no-holds-barred approach is invigoratingly refreshing. Linguistic minorities, who regularly experience discrimination, will feel relief after reading this book about someone else who has been through the same. It will validate and legitimize your emotions.

David shares his story so you can be free from dysconscious audism and have Deaf Pride.

When someone loves you they don’t have to say it. You can tell by the way they treat you.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude. -John C. Maxwell

Amplifying what is great within you will accelerate you life faster than trying to fix what you *think* ‘limits’ you. -Brendon Burchard

“You cant really be proud unless you know your history.” Nelson Mandela

Be the type of person that makes everyone you come across feel perfectly okay with being exactly who they are.

Ours choice of words are so vulnerable and weak. It’s always been the case as far as mankind could remember. People grossly misinterpret words on daily basis because there’s no accountability if they do. People even abuse words when they felt the need to misguide other. For that reason, scholars after scholars created grammar rules after rules in their desperate but foolish effort to try and strengthen the words, failing to realize that words were without souls. Words are not living things. ~ Barry Sewell

The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear -Rumi

“Man’s concept of his world built on the experience of the five senses is no longer adequate and in many cases no longer valid.” —SHAFICA KARAGULLA

There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. -F.A. Hayek

The voice, I don’t need it. I even know how to sing in silence. -Atahualpa Yupanqui

“A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.” – James Baldwin

Before you judge others or claim any absolute truth consider that you can see less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum and hear less than 1% of the acoustic spectrum

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
~Mark Twain

“People … don’t want to be cured or changed or eliminated. They want to be whoever it is that they’ve come to be” Andrew Solomon

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to understand. -Kushandwizdom

Don’t believe what they SAY. Believe what they DO. -Sam Stephens

“The problem is not that the deaf don’t hear, the problem is the hearing won’t listen.” -Rev. Jesse Jackson

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. -Maya Angelou

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. -Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island

“To make the right choices in life, you have to get in touch with your soul. To do this you need to experience solitude, which most people are afraid of, because in the silence you hear the truth and know the solutions.” -Deepak Chopra

An honest enemy is always better than a friend who lies. Pay less attention to what people say, and more attention to what they do. Their actions will show you the truth.

“They meet every once in a while to hear financial reports, pass resolutions, and adopt policies, without inviting any deaf man to their councils to give them the benefit of his experiences or views in bettering the education or welfare of the deaf children. If you doubt my statement, try to “butt in,” and see what’s coming to you. They will, as they have in the past, ignore you with cold, silent, proud contempt.” (Albert Ballin, 1861).

We all rely so much on speech, but there are so many other forms of communication, so much transmitted through the eyes and the heart. The deaf world has a huge amount to teach the hearing world -Bella Bathurst

“As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.”
— Andrew Carnegie

“It is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.” -Seneca

Help me pick cover art for my book-

“You Are Deaf, Congratulations: The Deafhood Journey and Understanding Audism”

https://99designs.com/book-cover-design/vote-y8hopn

Deaf Rights means equal access to information. It is the right to independence, the same as a wheelchair has right to have a ramp to enter a building, Deaf have a right to information in public building or workplace via text, captions, teleprompters. Most already have flashing lights on fire alarms, but we can do better.

I learned about noise sensitivity recruitment related to deafness and how it causes pain in the ears. Why some sounds frequencies are louder and all words rhyme and sound mumbly. I thought I had tinnitus but I think it is actually recruitment because I don’t seek to mask the ringing with more sound, but rather seek to avoid sound that causes the ringing. I get vertigo sometimes. When I was three I had inner ear fluid infection possibly from Meniere’s Disease or Labyrinthitis, had tubes put in to drain the fluid. Nobody knows if my deafness is congenital, but I suspect is it. I was just at a Jonsson wedding and I found out it runs in the family.

I now have a vocabulary to describe the problem that I’ve been having that was related to the discrimination of my disability at former employer. I asked for quieter work environment twice, I asked for Leave of Absence, my ears hurt but they denied my requests for reasonable accommodation for my disability. Instead they put me on probation for communication failure then terminated my employment when I ran out of sick days. They accused me of lying and said to me ‘You should just use discretionary time, for days you want off because it’s a nice day outside.’

They denied my request for visual L.E.D. text scroller ticker to accommodate in conjunction with public speaker announcements. I didn’t hear my name being called over the P.A., which got me in trouble, which led to me trying to tell coworker I didn’t hear my name -the communication failure was that I was speaking in a manner that customers could hear me. But how could I know that customers could hear my voice when I can’t hear theirs? Here is a link about “voice accidentally too loud.” I got in trouble for not using phone properly when calling in sick and they don’t allow text or email. I got in trouble for not answering the phone, that I didn’t hear. She lied about that. My phone record showed no missed calls.

So as far as my communication failure, in regards to using phone properly, I was supposed to speak to a specific person. But I don’t use phone as preferred method but when I have to I will call and say my message then hope I dont have to hear anything. I’ll probably misunderstand so I didnt want to be transferred and have to have a dialogue with someone else too. Its like making someone in a wheelchair go up that one extra step as punishment. Making me communicate on phone to more people, having to listen harder.

The essence of the discrimination is from the fact that they did not accommodate my needs for visual information, quieter work environment, or time off- even with specific requests and doctors notes. At the end of the day I failed probation and it was discrimination.

One time my boss sat me down for my first review and told me co-workers don’t think I’m doing my job. I explained it is because I am Deaf. I am always responsible to advocate for myself with pre-emptive FYI’s about my ears. Sometimes they don’t get it, or I fail to tell them directly (how often and specifically am I supposed to do that?), or they forget (because it is an “invisible disability”), but the axe always falls on me.

I am protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). I am Deaf. I deserve to receive compensation from this complaint I filed with Civil Rights Department of City Madison. Disability Discrimination is a real thing and it needs to be treated seriously. Without protections in place, to give leverage for enforcement through litigation, employers are not and will not be held accountable unless employees file Disability Discrimination Complaints. Unless we utilize ADA protections, future Deaf will continue to suffer the effects of Audism, albeit dysconscious, but ignorance is not an excuse.

“Sabino v. Ohio State University: Mr. Stein represented a deaf sports fan who could not understand the aural information projected over the public address system at Ohio State University’s home football and basketball games. The parties entered into a consent decree calling for Ohio State University to provide captioning at sports events.”

1. I made reasonable request for accommodation and was denied (text for P.A.).

2. I made request for L.O.A. (I was 1 month short of F.M.L.A.) and was denied. I needed to rest my ears. I had two doctors notes on the matter. It was later determined I had hyperacusis, tinnitus, ear aches, hair cell fatigue, cochlear dead zones, on top of congenital bi-sensorineural hearing loss. (I just got new hearing aids since then, which may it be noted, I did not have hearing aids while working at former employer. So obviously, they kept forgetting about my day-to-day reality of being Deaf/Hard of Hearing because they didn’t have a visual reminder like a wheelchair.)

3. When I filed complaint of disability discrimination to City of Madison Department of Civil Rights, they found No Probable Cause. The former employer hired a corrupt attorney who filled the response with lies, distractions, and non-issues to skirt around the real issue. I contacted over two dozen attorneys, but nobody would represent me. I did not file an appeal.

4. They denied my unemployment insurance benefit.

5. They cut my Cobra insurance short of the mandatory 18 months, which cost me hours and hours of time to rectify, even having to bring in a lawyer to make them comply to law.

6. I got a letter saying I had 90 Day Right To Sue at Federal court. So I explored my options, and determined not to keep fighting. At this point I feel my energy and resources are better allocated to writing. I did what I could, but I am moving on with my life. Perhaps in the future, we will have more lawyers to fight for the Deaf.

Thanks.

Update (7.17.14) I googled “Noise Induced Vertigo” and learned about Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome (SCDS), Tullio Phenomenon, conductive hyperacusis, and Hennebert’s Sign that help explain the conditions (noise and vibrations causing me ear pain) I was having towards the end of my employment. But instead of my employer working with me to determine the problem, they assumed I was lying and fired me. I have spent over 2 years now, since employment was terminated, researching the issue I am having. I finally feel equipped to present a case, only to find out statute of limitations has expired so I have no recourse for justice for being fired for my disability. I am upset the doctors and lawyers did not help me.

here is another article about hyperacusis and how the workplace caused it. this is a more in depth article here. Maybe I have misophonia.