Sean Berdy Quotes

Deaf people can do anything, except hear.

I am a visual person, given that I am deaf.

I was born deaf. Sound never existed in my life, and this is completely normal to me.

To really understand a deaf person's experience, you need someone that is deaf to be able to tell you what their experience is.

You must speak loud to those who are hard of hearing.

The late Président de Montesquieu told me that he knew how to be blind--he had been so for such a long time--but I swear that I do not know how to be deaf: I cannot get used to it, and I am as humiliated and distressed by it today as I was during the first week. No philosophy in the world can palliate deafness.

I am fourth-generation deaf, which means everyone in my immediate family is deaf. So I grew up always having 100 percent accessibility to language and communication, which was wonderful and something so many deaf people don't have.

I live my life like everyone else; everyone has their own obstacles. Mine is deafness.

When I learned to sign and speak at the same time, the whole world opened up to me. That's the beauty of encouraging kids who are deaf to use whatever it takes to communicate.

There is no relation to sound for deaf people. It is a totally different mental process.

I've always wanted to write a book relating my experiences growing up as a deaf child in Chicago. Contrary to what people might think, it wasn't all about hearing aids and speech classes or frustrations.

In the deaf community, in order to play a role of someone with a hearing loss... you have to have hearing loss.

I have to constantly remind myself that I am communicating with a person with hearing loss.

I became deaf when I was 18 months old. And I learned to sign when I was 5 years old.

There are many deaf people who couldn't imagine living in a marriage without someone who doesn't speak their language. For me, I believe that hearing or deaf is fine as long as both parties are willing to communicate in each other's language. But if there's no communication, then the marriage, I believe, will be difficult if not doomed.

In the deaf community, there are different types of people who have different philosophies. Some believe that they should only sign. Some believe they should only speak. Some people say you should use cued speech. Some say you should use cochlear implants. Some say you shouldn't sign. Some people say you should sign.

I'm happy being deaf. I'm happy with my life and my family.

We have over 25 deaf individuals in my family.

Since I knew my deaf identity since birth, it wasn't hard for me to be comfortable, confident, and independent in a hearing world.

Technology is helping more and more deaf people hear, but here at Gallaudet, we focus on learning and achieving-not on listening. So I would still say deaf people can do anything, except hear.

I'm not a deaf musician. I'm a musician who happens to be deaf.

I learned to speak first, and then to sign. I have never really known what it was like to hear, so I can't compare hearing aids to normal hearing.

Most profoundly deaf people have speech that is very difficult to understand.

One of the reasons I wanted to teach deaf children was because it made me very sad that they spoke so clumsily and that they moved with less grace that I knew was possible of deaf people.

There are people who are born deaf and grow up deaf who don't speak at all, and some of them have told me that they resent a little bit that I do speak. But, you know, I have to be myself. I have to do what I'm comfortable doing.