People with hearing loss. Sign catcher for the deaf and dumb

When people hear about accessibility, many people think it's all about ramps and elevators and only for wheelchair users. But problems of accessible environment are experienced not only by citizens with limited mobility, but also by people with sensory difficulties - for example, auditory and visual. People with hearing problems need full and equal access to oral information, so ramps and elevators are not a suitable solution for them.

Unfortunately, in many discussions about accessibility, they talk only about the problems of citizens with limited mobility, but forget about the deaf and hard of hearing and ironically even share videos and audios about accessibility that are not accessible to the deaf through verbatim subtitles in the same language - this excludes them . Many videos and broadcasts about the deaf are accompanied without subtitles, and sign language interpretation, if provided, is not understood by most deaf people. Many representatives of hearing prosthesis manufacturers and proponents of spoken language in Russia completely exclude deaf people in Russian-language videos and audios that are not accompanied by verbatim subtitles. How can deaf people understand if spoken information in videos, audios and events is not available to them? Even experienced hearing prosthesis wearers need subtitles. Many events about the deaf and accessibility in general also exclude people with hearing impairments.

What is an accessible environment for the deaf and hard of hearing? Many people do not know about this, even the deaf themselves - mainly due to the deaf people’s ignorance of their rights to barrier-free access to oral information, especially in Russia, where they are taught to adapt to the hearing people and not to complain about the lack of an accessible environment. People who are deaf are all very different, so their accessibility needs vary. Two deaf people with identical audiograms may communicate and perceive oral information differently.

Many people think that hearing aids and cochlear implants are, but this is far from the truth. Even those with hearing aids need an accessible environment. Also, many people think that sign language interpretation is the only type of accessible medium, but many deaf people use oral and written language, so they do not know or understand sign language. That's why the most universal type of accessible medium for most deaf people is .

In order for deaf people to enjoy television, films, and video clips on the Internet, they need access through high-quality verbatim subtitles (not auto-captions!) in the same language. Unfortunately, not all Russian channels and programs are available on TV, much less on the Internet. This also applies to films. In the USA and some countries on TV on Russian-speaking channels due to differences in technology, and access on the websites of some Russian-speaking channels outside Russia is closed.

In addition to subtitles for recordings, there are also “live” subtitles - text accompaniment in real time. Unfortunately, in Russia there are not yet such subtitles during live broadcasts on TV, during webinars, and at events. Many people think that speech technologies are the solution to such problems, but this is far from the truth. They cannot replace highly skilled typists and stenotypers (whose services are popular in the US and the West) and cannot follow many of the rules for quality subtitling. Live subtitles help not only the deaf, but even many with normal hearing! In the United States, such services are often offered to deaf students in classes, deaf professionals at work meetings, deaf visitors to various public events - for example, conferences, webinars, clubs, speeches, performances, oral communications in various public places, etc.

Sign language interpretation and sign language are important for native and experienced deaf users of sign language to facilitate oral communication and during lessons, work meetings, and various events. Not all sign language users prefer sign language interpretation - in some situations they may prefer subtitles. For some events they can request dual access through subtitles and sign language interpretation - at least that's what they do in the US. And at large events and conferences, all types of accessible environments are usually provided for the deaf (as in the example of the attached photo above in this article).

Experienced hearing aid and cochlear implant wearers who understand speech often use induction loops, which block out ambient noise and help them hear speech better. However, induction loops, as sign language interpretation, is not universally accessible for the majority of deaf people and cannot help all wearers of hearing prostheses. Many people also read subtitles in addition to induction loops because it is very tiring to constantly strain your attention to understand spoken language, especially during long and complex speeches and when people speak very quickly or mumble or speak with a heavy accent. Even many with normal hearing can barely understand such people and say how subtitles help them a lot.

To improve the accessible environment for the deaf and hard of hearing, the situation must be taken into account, as well as the different communication skills and different needs of different deaf people for different types of access to oral information:

Verbatim subtitles in the same language (recorded and live);
Sign language and sign language interpretation;
Hearing aids, cochlear implants, induction loops;
Optimal conditions for lighting, acoustics, seating, standing, walking during a conversation or event.

Don't make assumptions about what deaf people can or can't understand and how they can best process information. Also, if they do not ask for an accessible environment, this does not mean that they do not need it. It is paradoxical that foreigners with normal hearing are ready to provide translations into their languages even without a prior request, but they often deny an accessible environment to their own citizens with hearing impairments after repeated requests.

It is very important to take into account the QUALITY of the accessible environment. Bad subtitles, bad sign language translation, bad acoustics - this is NOT an accessible environment and is NOT better than no accessible environment. People with hearing impairments are often criticized for complaining about the lack or poor quality of their accessible environment, but it must also be kept in mind that this is no different from the lack or poor quality of sounds that many hearing people also complain about very often. If all hearing people have the right to high-quality sound, then all deaf and hard of hearing people also have the right to a high-quality accessible environment. Hearing and voice are NOT the only way to communicate and access information. Any information can be conveyed by any means, and all oral information must be accompanied by alternative means to be more accessible to a wider range of people.

A great example of an accessible environment is the island of Martha's Vineyard in the United States, where everyone communicated using sign language from the early 18th century until the 1950s, regardless of hearing ability. The deaf were not even considered disabled there, because they did not experience difficulties in communicating with hearing people who also knew sign language.

Many deaf and hard of hearing people are very smart, educated, interesting people who can do everything like everyone else. They do not suffer from deafness, but from the stigma of deafness and the lack of accessibility. If people with hearing loss or impairments live in a barrier-free environment, they can function equally with others and not feel inferior.

Note: The site text belongs to Svetlana Kuznetsova and Audio Accessibility. Copying and translating text is not allowed - you are only allowed to share links to pages of this site or copy a short quote with a link to the source.

For deaf and hard of hearing people are constantly coming up with new gadgets that are keys from the land of the deaf to the world of sounds. We have written more than once about such devices and concepts: translator headphones, pocket sound amplifiers, special glasses and silent alarm clocks... It's time to collect them in one review: meet ten amazing devices for the deaf and hard of hearing!

Call out to the deaf

Communicaid is a gadget that does not improve hearing, but compensates for it with vision. It is designed to help the adaptation of people with hearing impairments in the work team: thanks to it, colleagues will be able to call out! The gadget picks up even quiet sounds and translates them into a visual signal: flickering red lights.

Silent cinema

Deaf and hard of hearing people have every reason to be dissatisfied with cinemas: there are too few films with subtitles, and they are not suitable for ordinary visitors. The contradictions will be smoothed out by Mo Pix glasses: through them the user will see an additional screen with subtitles behind the regular screen. Ordinary viewers won't notice anything.

Sony glasses

Sony has prepared another movie glasses for the deaf. They will not require an additional screen to work: the subtitles will be encrypted in the image itself, but to see them you will need special glasses.

Teaching a deaf child to speak is not an easy task. A group of Korean designers have developed the VV-Talker concept to solve this problem: this small toy-like gadget will translate a child's words into a voice diagram. A hearing-impaired child must ensure that it matches the model for a given word. The device will help children master phonetics even alone while the teacher is away.

Telepillow for the hearing impaired

People who are hard of hearing often turn on the TV at full volume, thereby driving their neighbors into a frenzy - and still hear so-so. A pillow will come to the rescue. Designed by a team of Swedish designers (Fredrik Hylten, Isabelle Olsson and Maria Johansson), the Ictus device is an amplifier pillow. You need to connect it instead of a speaker and place your head on it - according to the authors, even the almost deaf will be able to hear it.

The unusual concept of Babel is called by the author a “visual hearing aid” - in fact, it will listen for the user. Microphones are built into the temples of the glasses, which pick up speech and translate it into words. Of course, the speech recognition system will sometimes give the user complete nonsense, but lip reading is also not without its drawbacks.

Sound is vibration. And if it is inaccessible to the ear of a deaf person, then it can be transmitted... directly to the head! Pierre-Antoine Buzard's "Shake" concept will give the user the ability to evaluate the intensity and direction of sound using vibrating headphones.

Sign catcher for the deaf and dumb

Deafness is often associated with muteness. Sign language comes to the aid of deaf and mute people, but, unfortunately, it is only for internal use." What to do if you need to explain to the authorities? Either hire a special translator, or use a sign-to-word translator. London-based designer of Ukrainian origin Victoria Voloshin (Viktoria Volosin) thinks that it will look like this. But still, it will be easier to teach “gesture understanding” to ordinary smartphones.

Alarm clock to protect your sleep

The Soft Touch concept alarm clock can wake up a sleeping person for work, even if he is completely deaf: the user puts a bracelet on his wrist before going to bed, and when he needs to get up, the alarm clock will begin to inflate it and press on his hand. In addition, Soft Touch can warn the sleeper about serious dangers: fire, bombing, and so on.

Soccer ball for the deaf

It's not easy to play football with an opponent who never hears the referee's whistle! For such cases, a luminous ball for the deaf was invented: LED Ball: instead of a whistle, the referee holds a controller, which, if necessary, turns on LED bulbs. Players will immediately understand that the signal has been given to stop.

This is where we will finish the review of gadgets - with the hope that
cinema, sports, study, work, travel and many other wonderful things will become available to deaf and hard of hearing people in full.

The main portrait feature of a deaf or hard of hearing person is the limited channel for receiving information about the world, the complete or partial absence of the auditory component of available information. It is this specific detail that formats everything that happens related to deaf people.

- If we take an adult, then he has two problems: access to information and freedom of communication. Information transmitted on radio and TV is not available without subtitles. The information that is transmitted at lectures, on trains, when the train is in a tunnel and the driver speaks, is inaccessible. These factors are a problem that many simply do not notice.

Maxim Larionov, lawyer, Vog

The following situation clearly describes the difficulties that deaf people face due to their limitations:

“You're on the subway, the train stops in a tunnel. It stops not for a couple of minutes, but, say, for 35–40 minutes. Most likely, this situation will not cause you any difficulties: after some time, the driver will announce the reason for the delay into the microphone. After listening to the information, you will continue to read, google, sleep, and think about your own things. Now imagine that you can't hear. The information conveyed by the driver flies past you. 10 minutes pass, 20 minutes - and you become scared. You don't understand what's happening. You don't hear. How to understand the situation? Of course, this is possible: contact your nearest neighbor (if you speak), read their lips what others are discussing (a poorly working strategy, since people are unlikely to discuss what they just heard from the speakers), contact your neighbor using text on a piece of paper or smartphone screen. Like all people, you probably don’t really want to communicate with strangers, especially in such a specific way. Not everyone around you is ready to understand the deformation of your speech; not everyone around you is ready to peer at your smartphone or understand your handwriting. In other words, all you can do is wait, without any idea of what is actually happening around you.”

The main difference in the hearing impaired world is the difference between the deaf and the hard of hearing.

The main difference in the hearing impaired world is the difference between the deaf and the hard of hearing. What is it? At the medical level, everything is quite simple: a deaf person cannot hear at all. His idea of what sound is is based on the bodily perception of sound waves, that is, vibrations. A hearing-impaired person is a person who has retained some percentage of hearing. Most often, this percentage disappears over the course of life. At the level of everyday life, depending on the diagnosis (deaf or hard of hearing), in correctional institutions for people with hearing problems, education takes place according to one of two programs, and the programs of these types of classes are fundamentally different.

The world of the deaf vs the world of the hearing

Deaf children are initially focused on inclusion in the world of the deaf; they are taught to speak in sign language and are taught in it. Yes, the problem of adaptation to the hearing world is just as acute here, but adaptation is realized through sign language, through the understanding that for this child the sound channel of information is closed forever.
The class for the hearing impaired is focused on teaching children to speak and read lips. These children are oriented toward inclusion in the hearing world. In other words, hearing-impaired children who studied in such classes are most often very well adapted for life. Such children do not even necessarily know sign language, since teaching a hearing-impaired person to speak and communicate with others using a hearing aid is possible, and this is a completely feasible task. It is also possible to teach a deaf person to speak, as well as to teach them to read lips perfectly, but this is a kind of utopia. The speech deformations of the deaf person themselves can be different (which is understandable: he does not hear, he does not have an exact sample of correctly sounding speech). Lip reading is also not possible for every person: the articulation of words varies among people. Essentially, these are two different educational strategies.

Separately, it should be said about how deaf people are taught to speak. The scheme is as follows: a speech therapist uses certain techniques to teach a person to pronounce sounds. After this, the sounds are collected into words. A speech pattern for a deaf person is achieved by the principle of similarity and repetition. In other words, when a sound produced by a deaf person sounds correct, he is informed about it. He must repeat it several times and remember it, focusing on his bodily sensations. We understand that perfect memorization in this case is almost impossible to achieve. This is the nature of speech deformations in deaf people.

- One way is the oral method, when he [the child] is dealt with very seriously so that he can speak and study in a regular school. His life since childhood has been similar to the life of a professional athlete. He is constantly in training, constantly under stress, constantly playing a social role. At the request of parents or teachers. There is a second way - this is the way in sign language, using two languages, Russian (written, oral if possible) and sign - as a means of obtaining information about everything you need. This is now a subject of debate in our Russian society. In the West it has long been determined that a child has a choice. If a family chooses sign language, the state fully provides. If the family chooses a different method, there are inclusive schools. Please learn among those who hear, catch up. That is, it is the right to choose.

Maxim Larionov, lawyer, Vog

How do people become deaf in the first place? Unfortunately, the most common case in the post-Soviet space is medical error.

In Russia, the generation of those over 30–35 very often tells approximately the same story: “I got sick as a child, I was treated with antibiotics. I'm deaf."

In Russia, the generation of those over 30–35 very often tells approximately the same story: “I got sick as a child, I was treated with antibiotics. I'm deaf." Sometimes a person is born deaf or hard of hearing due to genetics (an illustrative example from the field is the family of Vladimir Shestakov: six children with hearing impairment from a deaf parent; his case will be described below). The rarest group are those who completely lost their hearing late in life. At the same time, this is the most adapted group of hearing impaired people: they speak well and easily find a common language with the hearing world, since they themselves once belonged to this world.

2. Social and psychological characteristics

Throughout the entire field stage of the study (in almost every conversation with the respondent), the red line was the thought: “We are not complaining, everything is fine, we can cope.” It is important to understand that deaf people (as mentioned above, deaf people are most often deaf from early childhood) do not perceive their illness as a serious obstacle. They do not know another, alternative model of existence. Deafness is their everyday life, and they perceive it as a completely normal thing, and most respondents prefer to talk about specific problems in communication rather than about their psychological state. None of the interviewees noted that they felt excluded from society or deprived of anything.

Deaf people are very gullible. The closest analogy to describe the mechanism of this gullibility is hiring any translator from a foreign language.

Deaf people are very gullible. The closest analogy that comes to mind to describe the mechanism of this gullibility is hiring any translator from a foreign language. You do not speak Chinese, and a translator is working with you. At a formal meeting, an interpreter translates what your Chinese colleagues say to you. It is unlikely that in this situation you will have a suspicion that the translation is of poor quality, that there is a distortion of meaning or something like that. Deaf people find themselves in a similar situation: the only difference is that for them, a sign language interpreter is a person through whom communication with the outside world takes place. Everything is translated for the deaf person, and he has to be trusted, otherwise he cannot do it. In addition, in the context of trust, it is important to again mention communication difficulties. During the field phase of the study, it became obvious that a person who is trying to understand the speech of a deaf person who is interested is sympathetic. And if this sympathy arises on the part of a deaf person, he is immediately ready to say a lot. These traits manifest themselves in the case of Vladimir Shestakov, to which we will turn later.

Experts describe the deaf community as a small community.

There is no close relationship between members of the community, but they have the opportunity to communicate with each other through a variety of “points” - these are VOG, various theaters of facial expressions and gestures, etc. It is through such channels that entry into the “world of the deaf” most often occurs. There are not many deaf people in Russia, so one way or another they are aware of each other’s existence, they cross paths, and communicate.

An individual rehabilitation program is a program in which every disabled person in Russia participates. Each respondent (an expert or a simple disabled person) in an interview mentioned this program in the context that, within its framework, a disabled person has the right to assistance in purchasing (through reimbursement of part of the funds spent) technical devices necessary for a disabled person. For deaf and hard of hearing people, these are hearing aids, televisions with the Teletext function, smartphones, light and vibration alarm clocks, calls, etc. IPR reimburses only part of the funds (most often very small) when purchasing any of the listed devices.

Every person with a hearing loss is entitled to 40 free hours of sign language interpretation services per year.

Most often, these watches are used to go to the Pension Fund, bank, theater or any other place where there is a need to communicate with hearing people. People with hearing loss prefer to save these 40 hours and use them only when absolutely necessary, since this is a very small time for the whole year. Appoints translators to a sign language translation agency (in order for a translator to receive work through the agency, he must provide an appropriate certificate of qualifications). Sign language interpreter services beyond the specified 40 hours are paid.

3. Financial management

The financial situation of people with hearing disabilities varies. Based on the materials from the field stage, we can only say that there are a wide variety of cases: there are those who live only on a pension, there are those who work and have a stable income with a small addition in the form of a pension. However, one story definitely emerged regularly in one form or another: there is not enough money. Moreover, this phrase arose both in the context of the specific needs of deaf people (hearing aids, etc.), and simply in connection with the crisis and everyday needs not related to disability. Only one respondent from the entire sample was satisfied with his financial situation.

The vast majority of respondents pay their pensions to a bank card. There are practically no people who said that they use savings books. Utility payments are most often made either through Sberbank Online or directly at bank branches. Most often these are remote Internet payments. Informants speak very positively about services of this kind.

A deaf person is most often a person without a higher education. This is due to the fact that training in correctional institutions is focused on specialties that are “easy to explain.” In our sample, the number of respondents with special education predominates. Experts also mention this fact.

- They are sent to a specialized kindergarten for deaf and hard of hearing children, where they are taught by a teacher who introduces them to the world. Because it is very difficult to explain what is what. But it's possible. Then there are special schools, separately for the deaf and separately for the hard of hearing. They are in almost every city. Well, in a provincial town. As for Moscow, it’s not everywhere in the Moscow region, so people have to travel from one city to another. But this is also not a problem, and they usually cope with it. Then come technical schools and institutes. There is a certain list of professions: for men - construction, for women - also technical professions, which deaf people are offered to master. Which are not difficult to explain and which do not interfere with hearing. And then, it would seem, employment for a job, but they hire... I think that 10% of all deaf people. Because most of them are still illiterate.

Ksenia, sign language interpreter, was born into a deaf family

4. Stereotypes

Of course, a very serious problem that constantly invades the lives of the deaf is the stereotyping and stigmatization of the deaf by hearing people.

- Yes, it’s really difficult to find a job now, because the standard reasons are when they refuse because I can’t hear. They say: “How are we going to talk to you? You can’t hear.” Why talk? Again, I will work with my hands, I have a diploma, I have a specialty, I have a profession. I trained in it, I'm not just a person from the street. But, however, at one job, I also applied for it, where I worked for four months, but then I also had to quit. At first they didn’t want to hire me there either, but I showed them my diploma that I took second place in the competition, they praised me and still decided to give me a probationary period of three months, during which they would observe me. And everything worked out for me, I worked normally. They even suggested putting special lights there that would notify that lunch, dinner, etc. Why is this necessary? If everyone is going to lunch, I’ll understand too, I’m not exactly a cretin.

Valery, repairman

- As for doctors, it’s also very difficult. I come with my child, yes, and the doctor sees that I can’t hear. “Can the child hear?” - “Yes, he hears.” That's it, the doctor begins to communicate directly with my child, telling me some medications, his illness in general, his medical history, how to treat what. And I say: “Wait, I’m a mother. This is just a child. He won't remember all this. Let's communicate with me. Please take off your mask, I can read lips, I will understand what you are saying.” But doctors very often refuse me this. I say: “Come on, if you don’t want to take off your mask, then write, write to me on paper.” And this is also something doctors very often refuse.

Victoria, housewife

- This is the main problem, and many people don’t want to write, so, how to communicate with a person? Let's write to each other on paper. Many people don't want to do this. Many people want it. Many people are simply nervous and don’t want to communicate. They don't understand and are nervous. There are such different problems. It happens, for example, in a store or somewhere else, a deaf person seems to become unpleasant, well, various such nuances arise in communication. Yes. There are problems, of course.

Mikhail, sports coach

Thus, almost all stereotypes associated with deaf people are based on the communication problem described above. This is most clearly manifested in the issue of employment among the deaf and hard of hearing. Each respondent interviewed noted the problem of employment. Refusal to hire occurs on the same basis: “How will we communicate with you?”

September 25 is World Deaf Day. About how deaf people live, whether it is easy for them to get an education or find a job and, most importantly, to integrate into society - in the material “Dislife”.

Pavel suffered from meningitis at the age of three - as a result, he now has grade 3-4 hearing loss. The boy went to a regular kindergarten, and then studied at a correctional school for the hearing impaired. Then he entered the Baumanka faculty of the State University of Informatics and Research Center, where the hearing impaired study, with sign language interpretation, having received an education in the department of information processing and databases. Now Pavel Novikov works support engineer at SAP.

“It was difficult for me in kindergarten. I hear a ringing, but I don’t know where it is - it was about me,” says the young man. - I understood the general situation, but did not grasp the details. Therefore, I did not participate in various children's events. And in ordinary children's games it was just easy for me. At school, everything was easier even in some ways than in others; my parents worked with me a lot, and I went prepared. It wasn't very difficult for me to study. I didn’t think about the problems then, and didn’t understand why I was disabled and how I differed from other people?! The school was a kind of greenhouse, it was communication in a kind of closed circle, in the yard too - among relatives and friends who already knew about my difficulties. The problems started when I entered adulthood.”

Look at me as an equal!

How does a person live in silence? How does he feel about the world? And most importantly, how does this world treat him?

“Many, due to excessive tolerance, turning into tolerance, avoid the word “deaf” and repeat “hard of hearing”, fearing to hurt our feelings,” notes Mikhail Veselov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper “World of the Deaf” and the website of the MGO VOG Deafmos.ru. - In fact, the country of the deaf is divided into the deaf and the hard of hearing. The deaf themselves call themselves “deaf” and see nothing wrong with this, clearly separating themselves from the hard of hearing. It is more typical for the “hearing world” to call all non-hearing people - deaf and hard of hearing - deaf-mute. This term for a large part of deaf people sounds like an insult: some of us, even with a strong accent, speak, while the other part does not speak, but uses sign language, which is recognized by the linguistic system.” Mikhail admits that he himself treats the word “deaf-mute” with humor: “A person may not attach a negative connotation to “deaf-mute”; he did not intend to offend, he simply called it as he is used to. The same thing as we are used to counting the word "Negro" neutral, but if I say "Negro" to the African American, I will run into trouble. Although this will not stop an African American from being a Negro.”

For simplicity, we can say that a hard of hearing person is someone who understands speech by ear, over the telephone, with or without hearing aids. Such a person usually has intelligible speech with a slight accent. But a deaf person cannot understand speech by ear; he can read it from his lips, reinforcing his understanding with some sounds conducted through a hearing aid. Through the device, a deaf person can sometimes hear all the noise around him, but his speech perception does not work.

Many people think that if they sit next to you and talk, they will hear you. They will hear, but will not understand - that is the difficulty. “It’s like with vision. If a person has minus three vision, this does not mean that he sees everything. This means that he sees unclearly, in the fog. Therefore, when deaf people go out into the common big world, they do not understand what is bad and what is good, they may not read information between the lines, and emotional intelligence also suffers, because not all points are clear. That’s why deaf people sometimes seem to be from another planet,” says Pavel Novikov about the world of deaf people. And he reveals subtleties: it turns out that a person with hearing impairment is always visible from the outside. He is tense - you can see it in his shoulders. Deaf people see each other by their faces, because information is transmitted through facial expressions. And for those who are hard of hearing - by their gait, by some uncertainty. And on hearing aids.

“At the same time, abroad it is difficult to distinguish hard-of-hearing, or even deaf, people from others,” says Karina Chupina, journalist-translator, pe The first deaf trainer-consultant of the Council of Europe, expert on social inclusion and the rights of people with disabilities. - The differences are especially noticeable in the countries of Scandinavia, where, thanks to the methods of bilingual education of the deaf (simultaneous teaching of the national verbal language and the national sign language) and access to high-quality technologies, deaf people, even with severe hearing loss, can freely communicate in both speech and sign language and behave confidently and relaxed. In the West, they are not as embarrassed about hearing loss as we are; they do not cover their hearing aids behind their ears with their hair, but wear bright colored models like a stylish gadget, and frame them with rhinestones like decoration. If throughout the world hearing aids were treated not as prosthetics, but as auxiliary fashionable gadgets such as bluetooth, the life of the hearing impaired would be easier. So far, in terms of image, only bespectacled people have been lucky - look how fashionable it is now to wear different frames.”

Deaf people can communicate with signs, although they can speak, but they believe that they have the right to use their sign language and do not always want to be integrated into ordinary society. And the hard of hearing are a little stuck in the middle - they're not deaf, but they still can't hear. “Often they suffer because they cannot identify with any group,” explains Pavel. - Among healthy people, they feel deaf. And among the deaf they are also not at ease. In correctional schools, for example, students with hearing impairment are divided into classes A, B and C - according to the degree of hearing loss.”

“It happens that a group of signers stop communicating with children who start using implants or hearing aids and switch to speech communication,” recalls Karina. - They stop recognizing them as “theirs.” Conversely, integrated hearing impaired people may have some contempt for sign speakers...

At the same time, the boundaries between “deaf” and “hard of hearing” can be blurred or changeable, adds Karina Chupina, who was President of the International Federation of Hearing Impaired Youth(www.ifhohyp.org). “In different contexts, deaf and hard of hearing people may choose different forms of expression of their identity: in a deaf organization, a person may communicate using sign language, but in the main workplace, they may use exclusively speech communication. Identity also depends on the family, whether the parents are hearing or not; from the environment in the family and school - speech or gesture.”

By medical standards, Karina has grade 4 hearing loss, bordering on deafness, but by social standards she is perceived as hard of hearing. “It may be that one deaf person has undeveloped social and speech skills and a low level of education, and another deaf person - with exactly the same hearing loss - thanks to early rehabilitation and high-quality hearing aids, speaks a foreign language, is fully developed and can communicate on the phone. He may have a university education and years of trained speech with almost no “dull” accent. This is exactly my case and many of my Russian and foreign friends. Piano lessons, which I hated at the beginning, gave me the opportunity to develop an auditory perception of different frequencies and an intonated voice. I learned to speak on the phone for seven years with my friends and grandmother: in a hearing aid, the voice on the phone is very different from the voice in everyday face-to-face communication. At first, it is very difficult to understand the interlocutor, since, firstly, voice frequencies are greatly distorted when transmitted over wires, and secondly, the face and lips of the interlocutor are not visible, from which speech and non-verbal information can be read. Today I have already learned to speak on the phone in English, which makes me very happy.”

The problem is that many parents don't even know this is possible! – to teach a deaf child to speak, develop intonation, voice, and communicate with peers... And this was possible even in tsarist times using special methods without equipment. Today, Karina Chupina emphasizes, this is all the more real with the availability of modern, super-powerful and individually customizable devices (or implants) - and the will of parents to continuously educate the child from early childhood, so as not to miss the best time for rehabilitation. However, many parents are happy just because the child is pronouncing words, and stop teaching literate speech and vocabulary development, seeing no further prospects. And at a later age, it is much more difficult to develop speech and get used to hearing aids.

“But there are no free rehabilitation centers for deaf youth after 18 years of age. There is a need for specialists who are experienced in working and communicating with deaf people and knowledgeable in their problems, such as psychologists, psychotherapists, neurologists, and teachers of the deaf, says the expert. “In the West, there are special centers with a swimming pool and a gym, which also perform the function of socialization, since in general centers the deaf usually feel unwell.”

All hearing impaired people hear more with their eyes. And if a person has decreased hearing, then his vision often decreases as well - because it strains, looking for visual support, reading words and phrases from the lips. So it's important to have a conference call to see. “When I was learning English, I had a big problem with listening to English speech,” says Pavel about his experience. - But then it became clear that the ear and brain were simply not trained for this language. While certain brain centers react to Russian words, the brain did not react to English words. Therefore, fatigue is high among people who are hard of hearing: you strain to understand speech and get tired quickly.”

“Imagine yourself as a foreigner in your own country,” says Karina Chupina. - And you will understand how deaf and hard of hearing people feel. People who are deaf often face misunderstandings and misunderstandings—sometimes funny, sometimes life-threatening. Speech-oriented hearing impaired people experience constant stress from having to conform to the hearing environment and operating in conditions of complete uncertainty. There is no single or universal solution to solve the communication difficulties of speech-impaired people. A hearing-impaired person's communication is influenced by many situational factors, such as background noise, room acoustics, thick facial hair on a co-worker's face that obscures articulation, degree of familiarity with the situation and context, and so on. For example, you come to the bank, and the clerk behind the glass mutters something, turning away and looking at the computer. Or the doctor gives instructions before the procedure, with his face buried in papers. Is anything clear? No. Is it possible to read something from lips? Not either. Abroad, the culture of communication suggests that employees must look the client in the face and speak clearly and clearly. This alone helps establish understanding. On the other hand, the deaf themselves need to be able to explain to their interlocutor how to speak to them in order to facilitate communication (unfortunately, this is not taught here). It took me a while to formulate a clear message for action: “I’m hard of hearing. I need to see your face so I can read your lips and understand you.” This phrase had a bomb effect compared to the devoid of specifics and ineffective appeal “I have trouble hearing and reading lips.” The staff goggled their eyes in surprise, then carefully and looking at me, politely conducted business negotiations.”

Mikhail Veselov notes that deafness is a serious illness of social significance. And he gives an example from his own life. In 1997, he participated in the ascent of Kilimanjaro in a group of disabled people led by Matvey Shparo. “Several days of climbing. A couple of one-armed people, a couple of one-legged people, one blind and two deaf, including me. Well, the accompanying people are healthy. While the transition is going on, we, the deaf, are the coolest: our arms and legs are in place, we are carrying a decent load, we will help one disabled person here, we will push another there. What kind of disabled people are we? There was no healthier person on the team. But here's a stop. Tents, fires. People sit down and start la-la. Anecdotes, stories, jokes, discussions. And then the two of us are no longer welcome. We fall out. They don't need us. Now the one-armed, one-legged people at a rest stop don’t seem disabled – communication is equal without any problems. People want to rest, relax, and no one wants to sit next to us, try to explain to us what this one said and what that one joked about. As a rule, I went alone for a walk or to read in a tent.”

First of all, it is believed that the main barrier between a deaf person and society is precisely the inability to hear each other. It is each other - it is impossible to play with one goal here.

The main barrier is the stereotypical thinking of an ordinary person. “As soon as a person sees that a deaf person has arrived, what does he immediately remember? “Moo-moo” by Turgenev and Gerasim, his hero. A janitor, incapable of anything else. And unfortunately, this happens often. It is very rare that a manager hires a deaf person after making sure that he is a truly excellent specialist. We must discard stereotypes. Just look at the deaf as an equal,” says Maxim Larionov, head of the department of social programs and projects of OOOI VOG.

Barriers are in our heads

Pavel Novikov notes that deaf people are still treated better abroad than in Russia. “In Russia, I usually don’t ask more than three times. Because unfortunately, people start to really look at you like you're a fool. You feel awkward. We are forced to adapt to the environment. And we immediately read the tension in people’s gaze. Sometimes colleagues forget about this peculiarity of mine - and they may, for example, shout something from the other end of the corridor. In Germany and England, for example, it was easier. When I talked about my difficulties, they answered me: “Don’t worry!” They almost led me by the hand, wrote on paper, opened Google Translate on the iPad, helped with translation and understanding. And it was comfortable. People were very surprised that a person with hearing loss learned English and could communicate in it. And they tried very hard to help.”

Negativity towards deaf people, especially those who sign, is not as great today as it was during the USSR, but is still present in society. “In the world of the deaf they are very indignant at this attitude of the hearing people, but I, the hearing people, somehow understand them. If healthy people, amputees, and support people have a common, let’s say, mentality, a common cultural base, then the overwhelming majority of deaf people, due to their informational isolation, have their own special mentality - their own perception of the world, their own culture, even their own thinking,” notes Mikhail Veselov. - Language is the main marker of “friend or foe”. A deaf person signing is usually perceived as something incomprehensible. Alien. And that means frightening, arousing suspicion. I'm not saying that an ordinary person will run away from a deaf man screaming in horror. No, the hearer can communicate with him outwardly in a friendly manner, but inside there will remain a certain degree of wariness: “who knows him?”

This attitude is partly reinforced by stories about the criminal environment in which deaf people work. “This really exists in the country of the deaf. For example, the “keychain system”, when deaf criminals “protect” deaf beggars - sellers of keychains and other small items, says Mikhail. “And it’s a pity that behind the criminal pictures it is not clear that among us there are workers, artists, programmers, poets, journalists and so on. If they wrote more about this, people would be less scared.”

Sometimes a deaf person is often perceived as a person with mental disabilities. And this problem, our speakers believe, cannot yet be completely eliminated. “The problem is global and two-sided in the sense that not only hearing people perceive us incorrectly, but also deaf people often reinforce this opinion. After all, more than half of the deaf do not know Russian. For them, he is like a second foreigner, and he learns without pleasure, but only because he has to. A deaf person does not understand what is written in the newspaper, what is written to him in notes, he does not know most of the basic words and terms. The fault lies in preschool and school education for the deaf.”

“It is very important to work on creating a positive image of people with hearing disabilities,” emphasizes Karina Chupina. - In our organization, we provide training on communication for the hearing impaired, leadership skills, confidence, organization of social and information projects. But despite the dissemination of information, we cannot yet influence the attitude of society. It is necessary to work with journalists to highlight both the problems and successes of the deaf in the mass media. And - definitely! – involving the hearing-impaired and non-hearing people themselves in the joint creation of social videos, film productions and articles with professional journalists. In addition, you should not be shy about inviting people with hearing impairments to talk shows on social and cultural issues. So far, any people with disabilities, except those who are deaf, participate in the talk show.”

Another problem, as Mikhail believes, is in sign language. In 2012, a law was passed raising the status of sign language - it is recognized as a language, a linguistic system. “This leads to further work on the formation of a by-law regulatory framework regarding the use of this language in the police, prosecutor’s office, courts, when receiving education, when a deaf person applies to any authorities. This means that the need for qualified sign language interpreters is increasing, and the question arises about their level of education, retraining, and certification. And they should be paid for highly qualified hard work,” notes Maxim Larionov. - The All-Russian Society of the Deaf has done a lot of work in this regard, by the way, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. VOG is currently conducting other important social projects, for example, says Maxim, together with the Orthodox Church, VOG is developing a special dictionary of Orthodox gestures - that is, gestures that would explain special Orthodox terminology, explain the essence of prayer, and so on.

Mikhail Veselov, for his part, notes that there is still controversy regarding Russian Sign Language (RSL). Supporters of RSL claim that a deaf child will better learn important concepts and information, while simultaneously learning ordinary Russian. Opponents argue that sign language interferes with the acquisition of the Russian language, and, therefore, of the entire educational and cultural layer based on the Russian language.” Mikhail believes that sign language is indeed a unique phenomenon, but it changes the speaker’s thinking mechanisms.

“Meetings and negotiations are not for me”

The basis of a quality life for each of us is the opportunity to work, to work at a job we love. But it’s difficult for the deaf and hard of hearing. Often they cannot get a job..

Mikhail Veselov confirms that deaf people, as a rule, are avoided. But there may be reasons for this. “For example, when a deaf graduate of a university (where there was a special group of deaf people) gets a job as a programmer at a company and writes in the application: “Director of the company. Statement. If you ask for a job appointment,” naturally, this will be refused. But when a normally educated, deaf, talented person appears, with a bunch of projects and ideas in his portfolio, they will immediately refuse him, without understanding. Because a prejudice, a stereotype has already arisen.”

However, there are cases where successful deaf people got decent jobs and made careers. They may have an accent, slurred pronunciation, problems with perceiving other people's speech - but they are competent specialists. However, our speakers believe that these are most often coincidences and not a trend. It is difficult for a deaf person to make a career, and it is extremely difficult for him to become a leader.

“I have never identified myself as a person with disabilities. But when I started working, I realized that there really are difficulties, and we need to adapt to them,” admits Pavel Novikov. According to his observations, those who have difficulty hearing have decadent moods: they feel that no one needs them, that they will not be able to find themselves in this life, to be realized. “Right now, for example, I feel like I have nowhere to grow further. Because if I grow as a manager, I need a good knowledge of English and the ability to solve problems over the phone. For now, speaking English on the phone is impossible for me. This means that this path is still closed to me. If this is project management, then there may be large meetings, but I cannot fully communicate in a group with more than 3-4 people. I don’t have time to track all the statements or understand the context. I can’t cope with such an information load. I still follow the path of an expert, but this is not entirely my nature - I am more interested in working with people. It turns out that I cannot fully realize myself,” Pavel gives his own example. He notes that an old stereotype of thinking also works: people with disabilities take the world for granted and do not see a way to fight and somehow change their lives. Therefore, perhaps deaf and hard of hearing people are not always happy, says Pavel.

Many people who are hard of hearing are now unemployed or are trying to find employment with the help of relatives or in organizations working in this area, for example, VOG. “I know two people who graduated from Baumanka, but still went to work as teachers at a school for the hearing impaired,” notes Pavel. Often deaf people try to get technical jobs. But deaf people are hired more often for ordinary positions.

Another challenge in employment for the deaf and hard of hearing is that they require a lot of time investment in the beginning. There should be some kind of employee at the workplace who will bring the deaf colleague up to date and help him figure everything out. Establish communication to understand how to communicate with him. All this is individual. But not every company is ready for this. “Even with relatives, with a close circle of friends, it’s difficult, let alone working relationships,” Pavel complains. – Sometimes they don’t want to explain to me who meant what, people are too lazy to chew through the information, repeat it several times, or they don’t understand the need for this. I’m used to it, so sometimes I don’t ask again, so as not to stress people out.”

By the way, deaf people are entitled to a free sign language interpreter - but for a few hours a year. Such a service can be provided, for example, in case of participation in legal proceedings, or in some other necessary cases of communication. If these services are needed more, you will have to pay, and it costs from 2 thousand rubles per hour. It is interesting that even sign language has dialects, and, as Pavel confirms, for example, sign language in St. Petersburg will be different from Moscow - because Russian sign language came to Moscow with the Germans, and to St. Petersburg with the French.

Of those who come to ROOI “Perspective” for help in finding employment, a third are people with hearing loss. Various people come - both completely deaf and hard of hearing who can speak on the phone. “Literally five years ago it was very difficult for such people to get a job; companies rarely hired deaf people. Now business has become more open, emphasizes Evgenia Kusnutdinova, employee of the employment department of the ROOI “Perspective”.- And everything depends not only on the disability, but also on the person. How he imagines himself, how much he invests in himself, gets an education. We have, for example, English language courses for the deaf, but few people go there. But this is an opportunity to strengthen our position.”

There are indeed problems, but there are also success stories. For example, about two years ago, two young men, Kirill Pilyugin and Semyon Denisenko, who graduated from the Academy of Arts (RGSAI), applied to the Perspektiva ROOI. “One of them, Semyon, really wanted to work as an architect, but he is completely deaf. Kirill is hard of hearing. We were looking for options where Semyon could work without communicating with people,” says Evgenia. - We were looking for a position as a layout designer. And they were hired by a company that deals with layouts. And all because they still studied design programs separately on their own; this is not studied at the university. That is, they invested in themselves. And recently we received great news: Kirill and Semyon are participating in the creation of the most gigantic model of Moscow, this is a real success!”

Evgenia notes that deaf people may be perceived negatively due to a lack of information. And therefore they are denied work, not knowing how to communicate with the deaf. “We have training for employers to understand people with disabilities. They can be taken before or after people start working for them. How to communicate, how to organize his workplace, work process. This is very useful knowledge."

“VOG is now aimed at ensuring that a deaf and hard of hearing person can realize himself in the open labor market, and not in specialized closed enterprises, where there can be neither a good salary nor a career in the future,” notes Maxim Larionov, for his part. - These are segregated enterprises, a relic of the Soviet past. But then there were guaranteed orders from the state, so the deaf felt some confidence in life. And now they have to prove their skills all the time.” That is why VOG actively supports the Abilympics professional championships, as one of the founders of this movement. The best of the best are sent to international championships, where they compete with foreign participants. “It was very interesting to notice that these competitions are attracting more and more attention not only from the participants, but also from potential employers and large companies that are interested in employing people with disabilities,” says Maxim Larionov. - Maybe the company is interested in terms of quotas, or maybe as part of positioning itself as a socially oriented company. Motivation varies, but the fact remains: if a disabled person shows himself to be a competent professional in his field, his chances increase. Therefore, it is important to constantly demonstrate your skills.”

Give us directions!

An accessible environment is needed for a person to feel comfortable in the space. In the metro, at train stations, at airports there should be visual stands, indicators of transfers, schedules, and so on. And also, say people who are hard of hearing, it is very important to receive written messages during emergency situations, terrorist attacks, for example, natural disasters. For example, to notify the Ministry of Emergency Situations via SMS. When a deaf person is nervous, it is difficult for him or her to navigate without visual information.

Is the accessible environment in our cities prepared for the needs of the hearing impaired? Pavel believes that more and more options are appearing to help people like him: for example, markings in the subway on the floor and walls, additional signs. The boards in buses and trolleybuses, in banks, and clinics are also very helpful - previously you had to write your movements on a piece of paper and show them to passers-by or passengers on transport so that they could tell you when to get off and where to go. But in this, of course, we lag behind foreign countries. “In addition, people often get scared when a deaf person approaches them. There are still some prejudices. It’s more convenient for them not to come into contact with this topic,” notes Pavel.

“First of all, the problem is access to information. A person receives 70 percent of information through sounds. Television, radio, conversations with friends, colleagues. We receive a lot of auditory information while studying. So for us, an accessible medium is, first of all, visual, which must be adapted to the needs of the deaf,” explains Maxim Larionov. - And if we are talking about cinema and television, then first of all we need subtitles. Now on federal channels there is closed subtitling, about 16 thousand hours a year. This, of course, is not the full volume, but still a serious shift forward. These are Channel 1, Russia, NTV, Karusel, Children's Channel and Culture. We are used to watching them. But we would like all channels that broadcast on the territory of the Russian Federation to have programs in their network that are accessible to people with hearing impairment,” notes Maxim Larionov. VOG is currently negotiating with the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications on this issue.

And of course, an accessible environment is very important in education. Both on average and at university. “We need sign language interpreters. By the way, by law, a deaf or hard of hearing student must be provided with such an interpreter. But there is no mechanism for implementing such a right. VOG, together with leading scientific organizations, is developing this mechanism. We hope that from next year an order from the Ministry of Education and Science will be introduced in this direction,” emphasizes Maxim Larionov.

“Don’t be people passing by!”

Why are deaf people often perceived negatively? “You know, when people communicate with each other, and someone constantly asks: “What? I don’t understand, huh?!” - the light bulb in the interlocutor’s head lights up: “Fool. You explain to a person, but he doesn’t understand,” says Maxim Larionov. - When a deaf person is addressed out loud, he tries to point to his ears that he cannot hear. Sometimes he asks me to repeat it in a voice or a note. What is the speaker doing? There are few options. More often than not, people stop, become silent and leave. Why do they need this? Extra problems. I just walked into the wrong doors... This is exactly the stereotype. People don’t want to continue communication or explain anything...they just pass by.”

Sometimes, Maxim talks about his experience, people understand the problem - they can take out a piece of paper or repeat their question by typing on the screen of their mobile phone. But this is rare. “You just have to have humanity inside yourself. You can’t be a “person passing by”! A man who walks by then sits down at his desk and is approached for a job interview by a deaf man. He won’t take him, because he is “a person passing by.” A “green” light should light up inside each person: “This person cannot hear, but I will communicate with him, because he is no worse than me.” And when there are more such people in our society, it will be easier for a deaf person to live in it.”

The editors would like to thank Karina Chupina for her assistance in organizing interviews with experts.

The fact that hard of hearing and deaf people perceive sound poorly or not at all does not mean that they are not interested in music - this is evidenced by the increasingly popular musicals and rap battles in sign language. However, people are still limited in their ability to attend mass music events, writes BuzzFeed.

According to the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, approximately 90% of deaf children have hearing parents, but few learn ASL (American Sign Language - the main language in English-speaking deaf communities) and often do not think about the fact that the lack of opportunity to visit the musical event further isolates them from society.

“For me, music is not a sound, it’s a physical sensation,” says BuzzFeed’s completely deaf interlocutor Lisa Cryer. “I hear through my eyes and my body.” At the American festival Lollapalooza, she stands by the speakers and leans on the metal stage railing; For a hearing person, the volume is unbearable, but Lisa does not perceive it, feeling only the vibration from the bass.

A deaf music lover can feel the music from an ordinary empty water bottle or any container that also transmits vibration. Hearing-impaired concertgoers tend to get to the front rows so they can stand or sit next to the speakers so they can hear the vocals.

As BuzzFeed notes, historically the community of deaf and hard of hearing music fans whose members have wanted independence "in the hearing-centric music world" have tried a variety of ways to gain access. They began holding their own specialized festivals - BrickFest, Louisville's DeaFestival Kentucky and San Antonio's Good Vibrations. At dance parties where music with strong bass is played, DJs familiar with the characteristics of hearing-impaired people try to turn the speakers to the floor, rather than placing them on top , as usual, deaf musicians and entrepreneurs are developing Bluetooth-enabled devices in the form of vests, backpacks and bracelets that can be synced to the beat of music.

Despite these innovations, Cryer notes that most concert venues and festivals do not have access points for the deaf. Cryer insists that sign language interpreters and specially designated areas should be available at every music festival, just as they were for wheelchair users: this is required by law, regardless of whether organizers know in advance about possible hearing-impaired visitors or not.

For many fans of certain artists, it is important to hear the lyrics of songs, but the presence of a sign language interpreter at a festival is the exception rather than the rule.

“If I want to go to a concert, I have to plan far ahead: ask for access, hope they find people to help me, hope they are qualified,” Lisa complained. “I can never just buy tickets at last-minute or just to join friends: it takes a long time and is not easy to do, which is annoying because US disability law requires concerts to be accessible to everyone."

Meanwhile, thanks to a concerted effort by advocates in the deaf and hard of hearing community, after 2014, major festivals began creating accessibility programs for guests with hearing disabilities and providing special seating for them. In 2015, priority access was introduced for deaf and hard of hearing fans. In 2017, a fifth of Lollapalooza's 170 performances featured a sign language interpreter. In June of the same year, American hip-hop artist Chance the Rapper announced that he had hired a team of sign language interpreters for the remainder of his tour, which would include stops at major festivals.

Cultural events for Russian hearing impaired people

In Russia, 13 million people have hearing impairments, 250 thousand of them are partially or completely deaf, and the same problems are relevant for them as in the USA: despite the fact that the world’s first Theater of Facial Expression and Gesture for deaf people appeared in Moscow, musical events adapted for the deaf are rare in Russia; Sign language interpreters accompany performances of artists mainly at specialized festivals.

“Among the cultural practices characteristic exclusively of the “deaf culture,” the most popular is attending performances in sign language at the Theater of Mimicry and Gesture, the Specialized Academy of Arts, and so on. About 35% of respondents noted that they had attended these performances more than twice in the past year, and more than 40% attended performances 1-2 times over the past year. In addition, people with impaired hearing attend concerts with the participation of deaf and hard-of-hearing artists and performers, as well as specialized events (festivals), on average 1-2 times a year. , concerts, competitions) for the deaf and hard of hearing in Moscow parks,” note the authors of the study “Patterns of cultural consumption of the deaf and hard of hearing: inclusion or isolation?” Nadezhda Astakhova and Nikita Bolshakov in the Journal of Social Policy Research.

At the same time, 30% of deaf and hard of hearing people are active visitors to performances and concerts, and more than 60% of people with hearing impairments would like to attend them more often.

Since 2009, the World of the Deaf festival has been held in Moscow. The event is dedicated to World Day of the Deaf and is organized by the Peace and Love charity foundation. One of the permanent partners of the inclusive festival is the Russian cellular operator VimpelCom (provides services under the Beeline brand). Since 2006, the company has been developing mobile technologies and special applications that can be useful for people with hearing and vision impairments.

“In our work to introduce assistive mobile solutions into everyday life, we pay special attention to the need to destroy stereotypes. For example, every year we tell and show at our festival how musical and receptive to music deaf people can be. Our deaf festival is absolutely musical - it consists of songs (accompanied by translation into sign language), dances in which deaf dancers take part. The festival is equipped with a special dance floor that can transmit vibrations,” Evgenia Chistova, head of social projects at Beeline, told “+1.” "stars of the first magnitude agree to take part in the festival. This is all propaganda of a healthy attitude of society towards this topic."

Chistova notes that the equipment makes it possible to display a sign language interpreter explaining the meaning of the songs on a part of the screen that broadcasts what is happening on stage. “This is enough for musical culture to know no limitations,” the expert believes.

Material provided by the "+1" project.