Jack Ashley, a British Member of Parliament who is deaf, points to the need of understanding. “Most people are ignorant of the problems of the deaf,” he explains. “Above all, [the deaf] need understanding from hearing people, appreciation of the gravity of their disability, and respect for their individual qualities which are unimpaired, except in the imagination of others.”​—Italics ours.

Just because people are deaf does not mean that their mental faculties are in any way impaired. Yet, one bright young woman who cannot hear says that some people seem to view her as mentally retarded. When she and her husband had an interview with an insurance salesman, he asked why they were staring at him. On learning that they were both deaf and trying to lip-read, he readily understood.

Help From Technology

To deal with the varying degrees of impairment, skilled professionals have a whole range of devices to measure the extent of disability. For example, technicians use equipment to establish the level of hearing. Then doctors try to determine the type of impairment. Is the problem due to faulty transmission of the electrical impulses to the brain? Is the impairment correctable with surgery?

For the hearing impaired, there are hearing aids, which are battery-operated devices with an earpiece that is sometimes molded to fit inside the person’s ear. These take advantage of residual hearing in an effort to give a deaf person some ability to hear speech.

Self-Help

Since a medical procedure may not always be successful or desirable, many sense-impaired people have sought to circumvent the sad consequences of their disabilities by living up to their fullest potential. They have done so by developing to the full the abilities and talents that they possess. One person who did this was Helen Keller, a famous author and lecturer, who was both blind and deaf. But there are many other sense-impaired people who have excelled in various fields.

When a handicapped person feels challenged to develop his or her skills, the result is often greater independence and self-respect, not to mention the aid that such a motivated person can be to others. Janice, who is both deaf and blind, notes: “There is great strength in compensating. It is amazing to see how Jehovah God made us in such a wonderful way that we can compensate for some loss.”

A counterpart to dogs for the blind are ‘hearing-ear’ dogs for the deaf.

In regard to sign language, researchers J. G. Kyle and B. Woll say that understanding it is “the first step to breaking down barriers for all those in the deaf world.” Through this very effective medium of communication, the deaf feel at home with one another. It is a fine thing when those who can both hear and speak make the effort to learn sign language. In this way deaf and hearing people become more integrated, to their mutual benefit. Hearing people learn a new language and enrich their cultural experience, and deaf people gain greater access to the world of hearing people.

Interestingly, many people who are deaf from birth or from early infancy do not view themselves as being handicapped. The difference between them and hearing people is viewed as merely a language difference and a cultural difference. On the other hand, those who become deaf later in life through accident or disease often experience a much different psychological impact​—a deep sense of loss. For many of these, sign language is a difficult remedy, since it requires learning an entirely new language. Many prefer training in lipreading and continued practice in maintaining their already developed speech.

Understanding how sense-impaired people feel as well as communicating with them does not remove the root of the problem. Their handicap remains. If it could be eradicated, then gone would be the inequalities, injustices, and problems that the sense-impaired suffer.

Hearing for the Deaf?

“For the ear, the problem is perhaps less than for the eye,” claims Dr. Jean-Michel Bader. Fine strides have been made in the production of cochlear implants to restore a degree of hearing to some people with hearing impairments. But what of those whose deafness is due to problems with the transformation of sound waves into electrical impulses for transmission to the brain?

For the benefit of such ones, work progresses on an electronic inner ear. By means of a device with a pocket microphone that converts sound into electrical impulses, signals are fed along a wire to a small transmitter attached to the skin near the ear. A miniature receiver implanted under the skin and connected directly to the auditory nerve passes the message along to the brain, bypassing the normal route.

While many may rest their hope in science for the restoration of sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, there is a much more reliable basis for hope. It is the promise of the Creator of man’s senses, Jehovah God. He is the one who long ago inspired the prediction: “At that time the eyes of the blind ones will be opened, and the very ears of the deaf ones will be unstopped.” (Isaiah 35:5) But how can we be sure those words will come true? What is “that time” during which it is promised to occur?

Foregleams of the Future

If a thing occurred in the past, would that not give you confidence that it could happen again, especially if the one who was responsible for it said it would? Well, in the first century of our Common Era, Jesus Christ restored senses to those who had lost them, even as he once reported: “The blind are receiving sight, the lame are walking, the lepers are being cleansed and the deaf are hearing.” (Luke 7:22) These healings did not depend on modern technology.

Once Jesus even healed a man who had been born blind. Many neighbors and acquaintances acknowledged the miracle. The man whose sight had been restored said: “From of old it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of one born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing at all.” Yes, Jesus restored that man’s sight through the power of God!​—John 9:32, 33.

What did this prove? Why, that with God’s power, all who suffer impaired senses can be healed! Thus, Jesus Christ performed these miracles to demonstrate on a small scale what will take place earth wide under the rule of God’s Kingdom. It is “at that time,” during the rule of God’s Kingdom, that there will be a grand literal fulfillment of the Bible prophecy: “The eyes of the blind ones will be opened, and the very ears of the deaf ones will be unstopped.”​—Isaiah 35:5.

Knowing God’s promise for the future as well as coming into a personal relationship with him makes a handicapped person feel that a disability need not be overwhelming. It enables him to have a happier, fuller life now.