"You don't look deaf" - challenging misconceptions around being deaf
By Shiona McClafferty // 大象传媒 The Social contributor // 18 March 2021
I’m deaf and I get a lot of questions about it - like...a lot. So today I'm going to answer some of the things that people ask me about regularly.
Answering Questions About Being Deaf
"How do you have an accent if you're deaf?"
How do you have an accent?
I think this is the question I get asked the most. An accent is picked up through lipreading and tongue movements. I’m Scottish, I grew up in a Scottish household, my friends are Scottish, and I also had a Scottish speech therapist. So, of course, I naturally picked up a Scottish accent.
I also wear hearing aids that help me to hear more. But even without my hearing aids, I can tell when someone has an accent just by reading their lips. I also kind of wonder, what does no accent sound like? Like, everyone has an accent...I think? I don’t know anyone without an accent. I don’t know what it would sound like?
Were you born deaf?
I see a lot of people debating this in the comments of my videos. People seem to think that maybe I wasn’t because of my speech. But yes, I was born deaf.
I wasn’t diagnosed until I was three years old and that's when I got hearing aids.
