A deaf woman told her parents she would stop visiting them until they learned American Sign Language and thousands of users are supporting her decision.
The woman, who goes by u/basketsoftough on Reddit, received more than 14,600 votes and 1,570 comments since posting about her situation in the popular “Am I The A**hole” subreddit on Sunday.
In the post, she explained that when she was 18, she was in an accident that caused a traumatic brain injury (TBI). She said the TBI resulted in hearing loss in both ears leaving her deaf and she did not qualify for cochlear implants.
She explained that the accident “derailed” her life, causing university to be pushed back and for her to suffer from depression “for a long time.” She said once she decided to try getting back out there, she met the deaf community and learned sign language.
But, u/basketsoftough explained that her relationship with her parents hadn’t been the same since the accident.
“A few years ago I told them I have embraced being deaf, and I asked them if they would learn ASL, as that is now how I prefer to communicate,” the post read. “They said no at the time because they didn’t have time to learn a new language. I have tried many times over the years to try to give them information on deafness and ASL, but they have shown no interest.”
ASL is a language that utilizes hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate and is the primary language of many North Americans who are deaf. While the official origin of the language is unknown, some suggest it is derived from more than 200 years ago by mixing French Sign Language and local sign languages.
According to the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), while some find it simple to quickly pick up on individual signs, it takes “time, patience, practice, and a sense of humor” to learn ASL. ASL, like any other language, has its own set of grammar rules as well as sentence structure and syntax.
NAD suggests that it can take a year or more to learn enough signs for basic communication.
In the post, u/basketsoftough explained that now at 26, she feels content with her life and wants to be able to communicate with her parents using ASL. She wrote that she mainly communicates with her parents using voice-to-text on their phones which she said was “far from perfect” and chaotic when other people were around.
“Trying to keep up with conversations is exhausting, and people are constantly getting frustrated with me for not following along,” she explained. “Often we watch movies, but they refuse to turn the captions on because it’s ‘annoying,’ despite the fact that it means I can’t understand the movie at all.”
In the post, u/basketsoftough wrote that this Christmas she had a tough …….