The Vibrant Communicator

Hello, my name is Sneha Das Gupta.

 

Now I’m doing PhD at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

 

I stay in Kolkata.

 

I am deaf.

 

I was born to hearing parents.

 

When I was young, they knew that I am deaf.

 

I was, I was taken for hearing testing and after that I was put on hearing aids.

 

When I was one year old, my parents took me to the special school. There, I took auditory training, speech and language therapy.

 

They suggested my parents to enroll in the regular school.

 

And I started going to regular school.

 

But there I was the only deaf child in the classroom, so it was challenging.

 

I…I did not, I used to not follow the teacher, what is that they were teaching because I used to follow lip-reading and when, while explaining they were writing on the board, with their back, so I was do not…face…they are…I would do not see their face.

 

And also textbooks were not accessible to me, because it was, was too much of writing and very few pictures, so, so, I…

 

Only I did not face, so many deaf people are there, they also faced the same challenges.

 

So it is not only about me, it is, it is, it is, it is about the lack of structure in the education system, where it was not inclusive in the classroom.

 

And then I went to Presidency College. I studied in Sociology.

 

And then I went to Mumbai for doing Masters at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

 

And after coming back to Kolkata, I did my M.Phil. in Institute of Developmental Studies, Kolkata and now I am doing PhD.

 

In 2021, I got cochlear implant in both ears.

 

There…there are huge difference, like when I was on hearing aids, it never helped me to understand the speech and after getting cochlear implant I’m able to, actually I can hear everything but I’m learning to identify the sounds.

 

So now I can hear simple, simple conversation.

 

So there is huge…earlier I used to hear only the vowels, now I’m able to hear some consonant, letters along with vowels and some very small small (soft) sounds.

 

Like I have never heard before, milk boiling.

 

So that was the first time I was like, this sound, it happens like that.

 

So it was, it was a good experience that I was exploring so many sounds from the first, which I have never heard them before.

 

My listening, my listening has improved.  Along with that, my thought process is also developing and also my speech is slightly improving.

 

So, overall, the listening development, communication is also developing.

 

I listen, lip-read, speak, this is how I communicate.

 

I also realized that I benefit from Signed English.

 

When people speak unknown words, I do not understand.  When they use Signed English, I understand very quickly.

 

For example, C O N F I D E N T, this is Signed English.

 

And the sign language is confidence.

 

This is how I’m learning Signed English and Sign Language.

 

Sign Language is also a viable communication option for deaf people.

 

There are some deaf people who do not want to use hearing aids or cochlear implants.

 

They want to use only the Sign Language.

 

And they want to educate themselves and also communicate with each other.