Last Updated on: 15th April 2014, 10:37 am
Usually, if one form of communication doesn’t work with someone, another one will. He speaks another language? Fine, find an interpreter. He can’t read? No problem, read it to him. He’s deaf? Ok, get someone who can sign or write notes back and forth. But what if the person you’re trying to communicate with is deaf, mute, and can neither read nor sign? Now imagine that guy is on trial. Just how in christ do you communicate to him what’s going on?
The weird thing is this happens more than I would have thought. According to the article, there are quite a few deaf folks leaving school with what is called little to no language competence.
So my question is how do these people survive? I mean, you can sort of get by with pointing to stuff, but there comes a point where you need to say something more complex. And how do they stay sane? I felt frustrated when I couldn’t express myself adequately when I was in Quebec because I just couldn’t find the words in French from time to time. But I knew I was never really screwed because if I had to, I had another language. The world must be one scary place if your only means of communication is facial expressions and pointing.