Just Deaf

"Meeting deaf adults gave our parents a positive attitude towards deaf children."

Martine and Roos Wattel

"People looked at me funny when I said I didn't think it was sad to be deaf at all."

"Deafness used to not be quite as well known, my mother would explain what it was to the other children."

"We can tell friends and family something about his development, but his ears won't change."

"The youngest is now two years old, I don't know if they're gonna use a hearing aid."

"Some deaf children think it's something to grow out of."

"Five days after his birth he was already getting hearing tests done."

"Society makes us handicapped."

"My parents were fine with my deafness because of our Islamic faith."

"I really wonder how he's going to experience it later on."

"We've never decided not to do something because they're deaf. The audiologist told us: you can grow up to be old and happy with it."

"Will he be able to enjoy music?"

"As a child I didn't know putting something down on a table made a sound."

"I have felt like we were missing help from within the deaf community. You mostly see hearing professionals."

"It wasn't until later that we realized: not being able to hear, that's actually kind of complicated."

"His hearing loss quickly became less important."

"If you can't hear, you're deaf. I think 'very severely hearing impaired' is very weird."

"A CI can be useful if you get it when you're still young, but it's no use to me."

"My parents could ask our deaf babysitter all kinds of questions about deaf people."

"My third child was hearing, which was new to me."