An Interview with the owner, Gordon: What It Means To Be Deaf

"Deafness has shaped my life, my personality, and the way I perceive the world. The way I see it - only the best people go deaf!!”

I first realised I was deaf when I was taken to hospital at the age of five. I couldn’t understand why nurses and doctors in white coats with big reflectors wanted to keep looking down my throat. I had to keep putting on these huge headphones and listening to beeps and then eventually I had a hearing aid plugged in my ear. In those days it was a very frightening experience. From that point
in my life deafness affected me because I was acutely aware that I was a little different to
everybody else around me.

I own and manage my company Gordon Morris Ltd. and every day that I work and socially interact with people is a struggle. I always say my brain is like a moped - the engine is at full rev but I’m moving at a snails pace. Normal hearing people operate at a normal pace but my brain has to work much harder to pick up the details that other people process without any effort!

Although deafness has shaped who I am, I feel that as a disability it is a nuisance in many ways - it often causes the people you speak with to get very angry and lose patience with you. It really is a very severe negative force to live with at times. People who don’t understand deafness and the tribulations that it brings can be very ignorant towards those with hearing impairment.

There is a significant lack of understanding, compassion and tolerance for deaf people in the non-deaf community. This must be addressed by both parties in order for discrimination to be reduced and for the realms of acceptance to be opened. Often, deaf people are made to feel as if they are stupid because they can’t hear what is being said, or like a nuisance because they ask for the facilities that they are legally obliged to have access to, such as an induction loop system.

My job is to make sure that the hearing systems on offer in public buildings and in private spaces are quality systems that really work for the end user