My Aunt Research Paper

Muskan Agarwal

Suffering

My aunt was born deaf in India. At that time, there was a stigma related to deafness. In my aunt’s community, people tended to believe the deafness and muteness were associated with intellectual disability. So, people of the community thought that she would be incapable of doing well in any aspect of her life. Such beliefs worried my grandparents. They tried to find schools with accommodations for deaf children, but they weren’t able to. So, they decided to move to another country, the United States. In America, my grandparents consulted many doctors and tried to find medical treatments for my aunt’s deafness, but they were not able to do so. Eventually, my aunt was enrolled in a school specifically for deaf children. Because she went to a school that accommodated her disability very well, she graduated high school and college. She now has a successful career. All of this would not have been possible in the community she was born in. So, my aunt’s story, is in one way a success story. She succeeded in life, even though everyone in her community thought that it was impossible. Still, her story is one of

She is the only one who doesn’t really know what’s going on. Her husband and children know sign language, and so they often translate for her. However, that is still limited. They are often talking to other people themselves, and so they cannot always translate for her. As I grew older, I became more aware of my aunt’s isolation. So, whenever I saw her, I made an extra effort to communicate with her. Still, that was more difficult than I expected. Although my aunt remarkably learned how-to talk, despite her inability to hear, she cannot vocalize her words properly. It is difficult for me to understand her. It is difficult for her to understand me because I do not know sign language. Even though I know English, I cannot communicate with her very