E-Community Activity: Finding Humor

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Subject: Finding humor

Successful people tend to be able to see the light side of situations. This includes finding the humor in things that happen to people because of their disabilities. In an online discussion, people with hearing impairments shared the following funny experiences.

  • I once got off a plane in Sioux Falls and had a wheelchair waiting for me because they knew I had a disability. I am deaf.
  • One of my favorite stories was told to me by a counselor who is deaf. He's driving through a drive-through window. He gets to the speaker and says, "Hello, I'm deaf and won't be able to hear you. I can read lips so we can communicate when I get to the window." All of a sudden this woman in the booth gets this "Oh good, I'm trained for this, I know what to do" look on her face as she runs out and gives the guy a Braille menu....in his car....he's driving.
  • It's happened more than once that someone will come up to me and ask me if I'm from France or Germany or Switzerland or some European country because of my "accent." You can imagine the shock on their faces when I tell them I have a hearing impairment. Some of them act embarrassed. "Bonjour!" That's all the French I know! :)
  • In my sophomore year of high school my math teacher left the room for a minute when I was using an FM amplification system (which amplifies the voice of the speaker, who is wearing a clip-on microphone, into my hearing aid). The teacher had the microphone attached to his shirt. If you leave the room with the FM system, the sound doesn't stop transmitting! :) Well, I heard some running water, and so I turned my FM off to save myself and my teacher from a major embarrassment. A few minutes later, I looked up and my teacher was right there in front of me. His face was as red as a beet as he announced, "I was just washing my hands, okay?"
  • I've had the same experience! After class I told him I was scheduling an "FM Embarrassment Seminar" for the teachers who use the FM system. We still joke about it.

Share a humorous situation that occurred as a result of your disability.