Two types of deaf people I've met...

Over time I've been learning a bunch about people who are deaf or severely hearing-impaired, and I've found there seem to be two groups that they can be grouped into on some level.

• There seem to be deaf people who accept their deafness, who they are, their culture and themselves in society. They use sign language to communicate and think that deaf people can do anything anyone else could do except for hear. Which is right, deaf people can do anything they want to or that they put their minds to except for hearing.
• Then there seem to be deaf people. People who are hard-of-hearing/hearing-impaired or may even actually be completely deaf, but don't accept themselves as such and don't communicate with sign language. These deaf people don't involve themselves with other deaf people or the deaf community either.

There's a rather clear difference I've found because deaf people are proud of who they are, they aren't ashamed of being deaf and they darn well shouldn't be ashamed either. It's who they are and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Deaf culture is fascinating and wonderful, and really great to learn more about all the time. I really enjoy learning about it and I really enjoy signing with people that I met.