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Ways of Communicating With Deaf People

Many types of communication exist today, such as verbal communication or communication through pictures, writing or gestures. Deaf people may prefer different communication techniques, or depending on their level of deafness, may be able to communicate in ways people don't realize. Either way, everyone can benefit from knowing the ways of communicating with deaf people so they are better equipped to handle the situation should they encounter a deaf person socially, at work or in an emergency situation.

  1. Sign Language

    • Sign language may be one of the most popular ways of communicating with the deaf today. Whether someone is born deaf or loses his hearing later in life, he most likely learns sign language as his primary source of communication. Sign language is a visual language that uses the arms, body, facial expressions, hand shapes and hand movements that represent words, letters, actions and concepts. Different countries use different types of sign language, but American Sign Language is the type used in the United States. It has its own grammatical structure and tends to be fairly easy and quick to learn as opposed to learning a verbal language. Though it may feature the fundamentals of the English language, it contains its own grammar, punctuation and sentence order rules.

    Lip Reading

    • Lip reading is another way to communicate with the deaf. As people speak normally, the deaf watch the lips, teeth, cheek, tongue, neck and facial expressions of the person speaking to determine what they are saying or communicating. Only about 40 percent of the speech is visible with lip reading, however, and many sounds or words look similar when verbally spoken. It's difficult for deaf people to completely depend on lip reading for communication, so most use a combination of lip reading and sign language.

    Getting Attention

    • Use one of a several ways to get the attention of a deaf person to begin communicating with her. You can wave your hand so she sees you are trying to communicate, or tap her gently on the shoulder if she is not looking at you. Flickering the lights or stomping on a wooden floor so that it causes a vibration are other ideas to get the attention of a deaf person.

    Voice

    • Some deaf people have the ability to use their voice to help them communicate. Deaf people may receive years of speech therapy and speech training, helping them have some speech that is slightly understandable to others, though it may have unclear pronunciation or intonation.

    TTY/TTD and Relay Services

    • Machines called a TDD or TTY help deaf people communicate with hearing people over the phone, with special equipment used by both parties, by typing their messages back and forth.

      A relay service allows deaf people to communicate with hearing people through a dual party phone system. With this type of communication, the hearing person does not need the special equipment as with a TDD or TTY machine. One of the individuals dials a special relay service phone number and an operator then places a call through to the other person. The operator's job in this way of communicating is to announce who the caller is to the person being called, either by voice if the person if a hearing person, or through typing on a TTY machine if the person being called is deaf. As the hearing caller talks, the operator types the messages to the deaf person on the other end of the line, and voices the messages from the deaf caller to the hearing person. These calls are strictly confidential and allow a suitable form of communication between the hearing and deaf.

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