Dr Sarah Powell: why acceptance is important

Dr Sarah Powell on the importance of acceptance:

It’s important to accept and be proud of your deaf identity.

As a deaf community we should not be segregated, for example it does not matter if we are BSL users and Lip readers, it’s our choice. It doesn’t matter if we have only deaf friends or only hearing friends or both, it’s our choice. It doesn’t matter if we use hearing aids or not, if we have a cochlear implant or not, it’s our choice.

It doesn’t matter if we like to go to deaf clubs or not, or if we go to deaf festivals or not, it’s our choice.

What’s important is that we do not criticise people’s choices. We are all deaf, therefore we are all equal. We should support each other, accepting other deaf people’s choices and they in turn should accept ours.  

This will help with your mental health. The more we criticise others and the more we segregate ourselves from others, the more our mental health is impacted.

We need accept that we are deaf and we do not need to change for anyone.

This vlog has been created as part of Mental Health Awareness Week 2019.

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