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Deafnesss

"She can hear what she wants to hear."
"He turned a deaf ear to her cries."

People often say these things without a thought, but for those who must cope with hearing impairment, it is both painful and frustrating to be blamed for that which is totally out of our control. We feel the stigma of having deafness equated with cold-heartedness.

In Speaking for the Child, we see first the girl—the woman—thinking, feeling, acting, living. She refuses to allow her progressive visual and hearing loss to deaden her personality. She refuses to carry the stigma or live the stereotype that society has of people who have disabilities. In the end, she is far from the confused, angry and hurting child she was and yet she is still her Self.