Scenario Girl

Last night, at what was supposed to be a charming overnight stay, I found myself in a a heated discussion that very quickly escalated to a rather angry argument and a very annoying two-hour drive home from the Blue Mountains.

A reading group I’m a member of was discussing our latest book, People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. As usual, I hadn’t finished reading it and was surprised to hear that there was reference to a deaf character. Having studied and worked within the deaf community for ten years, I was interested in what the other readers thought about the character.

However, within just a few minutes, the discussion had denigrated to a disagreement as to whether or not deaf, Deaf and Deaf-blind people are, by definition, psychologically impaired. Being in such disbelief at what I was hearing, I tried to clarify what was being said. Surely there wasn’t a 30-something psycho-analyst beside me saying that Deafness and blindness naturally affect the psychology of a person merely by virtue of the fact that the eyes and ears are connected to the brain!

Of course there are deaf and blind people who have psychological illnesses, but to say that it is because they are deaf or blind is ridiculous.

Sixteen hours later I sit here writing this post, trying to understand how I might have misunderstood what was being said. But its offensiveness is unabated and continues to anger me. It is opinions such as these that continue to disable people of these communities. Misinformed ‘professionals’ who have no real knowledge of what they speak, who have never met nor worked with the people they describe, who make such ludicrous statements, are of course entitled to their opinion. But such ignorance! Such ignorance!

Ignorance such as this will never be considered bliss in my world.