Often many D/deaf people and Deaf people with multi disability/ties do not identify straight away. Still, there are a small number of D/deaf people do recognises themselves in childhood. There was a book called ‘Deafhood’ by Paddy Ladd, for he wrote other publications such as Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood. Let explore the Deafhood from the Deaf community.

There is a lady who is in the late 50s and spends her time working, assisting, supporting, and advocacy many people with disabilities, including D/deaf people over 38 years. Her name is Daisy (fiction), and she lives with her hearing partner and dogs in the rural area. Daisy is a deaf person with many skills to teach, lead a hand, advising, and creative skills in gardening, DIY, or cooking. Daisy is currently involved with the Enabling Good Lives Waikato Leadership, other HCC Advisory Group, along with other groups like Mental Health and Disabilities, DPA (Disabled Persons Assembly).

Daisy born deaf without noticing until around 18 months old, one of her grandmas saw something was not right. The result of the cause to lose Daisy’s hearing pre-birth was rubella – German Measle, and from 1962 to 1969, it was the world’s pandemics of rubella. In the 1970s, New Zealand received triple vaccines containing attenuated measles, mumps, and rubella as MMR viruses.  Daisy and her friends at Hamilton West School received a triple vaccine, and she remembered this.

Daisy was not aware of her disability – deaf or hard of hearing during her childhood for she knows that she wears her hearing aids. One time when Daisy was very young, she threw her hearing aids down in the toilet and tried to flush it down the drain. It was not working either. The sounds were alien to her when Daisy listen or to hear the noise from surrounding the environment at home and school. Without wearing the hearing aids at night, Daisy slept through except to feel the vibrations such banging, thumping. Her first language was English when she went to school with other Deaf children, and they learned to communicate in sign language in the school playground. In the classroom, they (Deaf children) were taught to do oral by using speech therapy. It was a long progressed to taught these Deaf children how to speak correctly.

Daisy and her friends travelled on the bus and taxis from Monday to Friday during the school terms. Daisy’s friends often asked her to interpreted when talking to the shop keeper, bus drivers, strangers because they struggle to lip read other people.

Daisy was a teenager, and she came home one day, she told her mother that she is deaf. Her mother told Daisy but do not understand why Daisy thought or realise that she is deaf already. From that day, Daisy started to explore what are the barriers to the Deaf communities. She lives in two worlds – one world is a hearing while the other world is Deaf BUT to sit on the fence of these two worlds where she can manage to do work, support, assisting, join with her friends and family. For example, if Daisy is in the hearing world or to communicate with a Deaf person and Daisy speaks lip read and of course, to sign language for the Deaf person. Without the Deaf person, she spoke and lipread at home or with friends and family.

The fantastic technology came along, and this technology, such as the internet, iPad, mobile, text help many Deaf people. Today it is better than the old days and ‘thank you’ to those people who created marvellous technology, but the costs of equipment were no better for many Deaf people’s income. There is so much work to be done by breaking down the barriers that stopping Deaf people without having interpreters on television, Skype, Video conference, to study at University, and many other things in their lives around homes, university, public/private buildings, hospital.

Deaf people’s first language is NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language) than another language such as English, Korean, Irish. People outside the Deaf community have no idea or have little idea of how to communicate with their Deaf family members, friends, or staff in the workplace. It is not a universal sign language; it is the same as spoken foreign language anywhere in the world.

In the later years, Daisy decided to travelled to many countries for a holiday and to explore other Deaf people’s lives, such as Deaf culture, sign language in the communities over there. She found many Deaf people in other countries faced many barriers such as communication without sign language in the workplace, or with new friends, hospital and the lack of equipment such as flashing lights for them in one vast country than another small country. Daisy found their Deaf culture and sign language are similar to New Zealand than other low-income people, gangs and productive people in the community. One time Daisy was travelling around Switzerland before going to The Netherlands, and there was no fax machine at her friend’s place in Jura, Switzerland. Daisy wrote a postcard to informed her mother that she is coming home without a change of plan. Daisy was not aware that the mother was worried and waiting at the Auckland airport on the day Daisy is due to come home. Her mother was relieved to see her home safely but told Daisy that her mother did not receive the last postcard from Jura. Daisy said to her that she did. Never mind, they went home and guess what? A couple of weeks later, her mother received the last postcard.

Daisy decided to take up a degree at the university in Waikato, and she faced more barriers, such as no interpreters available at the university. She found a way to get funding through the Disability Support Service, which was available at the university, and it was great for her. Daisy gained having interpreters, notetakers, extra hours for the examination and a Learning Support Service for the assignments. She got the funding through Workbridge, and she reapplied funding application each year until Daisy completed her BA in Arts degree. The courses and university life at the university was a massive challenge for Daisy, and she made it through by removing the barriers.

Daisy is aware that she has a deafhood after reading Paddy Ladd’s book for she knew that kind of childhood where there was a barrier to many Deaf people, including people with disabilities over many years.