Just Deaf

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

Martine and Roos Wattel

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

"His hearing loss quickly became less important."

"Society makes us handicapped."

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

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

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

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

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

"Will he be able to enjoy music?"

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

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

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