Wow, that's really interesting. I have often thought about how difficult and frustrating it must be for a deaf person to interact with the world. Go to the grocery store and you can't find something? Well, good luck to find somebody that can understand you. I remember years ago, I was out with some friends at a nightclub and we were waiting for our dj pal to get off work to get a bite to eat. There was a young man there who refused to leave and the staff at the club was really having a hard time of him. After watching for a few minutes, I realized that he was deaf. I snatched up some paper and a pencil from the bar and handed it to him. He was so relieved. It turned out that he had been brought there by some "friends" and they had all left, leaving him there alone. He just needed somebody to call a cab for him. People just don't think that this person is deaf and so they don't understand what is going on. In this case, the security staff thought he was just another belligerent drunk when he wasn't. It was just a total communication breakdown.

Stephanie

In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson