For Hearing People Only: First Edition; Answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about the Deaf community, its culture, and the "Deaf Reality" by Matthew S. Moore and Linda Levitan; with a foreword by Harlan Lane

Ever asked (or heard) these questions: "Don't all deaf people read lips?" "Is it OK to say 'deaf-mute' & 'deaf-&-dumb'?" "Do all deaf people benefit from hearing aids?" Ever wondered where you could find answers to these & others, in a nontechnical, easy-to-use format? FOR HEARING PEOPLE ONLY fills this gap. It presupposes no prior acquaintance with Deaf Studies, sign language, or any "Deaf" knowledge at all, & is written in a simple, clear, entertaining style. As the deaf co-authors write: "Hearing people--those with normal hearing--do not think of themselves as being 'hearing people.' They see themselves as people. You are the insiders. To you, we deaf people are the outsiders. You call us 'deaf people.' But we deaf people see non-deaf people as the outsiders--'hearing people.' To deaf people, the non-deaf majority are 'hearing people.'" Without doubt, there is a need for such a book. FOR HEARING PEOPLE ONLY is intended for students & laypeople (like you). Prepaid orders only to: HPO Book, 85 Farragut Street, Dept. RB, Rochester, NY 14611-2845. $14.95 ppd., NY residents add $1.05 sales tax.

Like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, this is a fascinating voyage into a strange and wonderful land, a provocative meditation on communication, biology, adaptation, and culture. In Seeing Voices, Oliver Sacks turns his attention to the subject of deafness, and the result is a deeply felt portrait of a minority struggling for recognition and respect — a minority with its own rich, sometimes astonishing, culture and unique visual language, an extraordinary mode of communication that tells us much about the basis of language in hearing people as well. Seeing Voices is, as Studs Terkel has written, "an exquisite, as well as revelatory, work."

Using original sources, this unique book focuses on the Deaf community during the 19th century. Largely through schools for the deaf, deaf people began to develop a common language and a sense of community. A Place of Their Own brings the perspective of history to bear on the reality of deafness and provides fresh and important insight into the lives of deaf Americans.

Weaving together lyrical history and personal memoir, Virdi powerfully examines society’s—and her own—perception of life as a deaf person in America. At the age of four, Jaipreet Virdi’s world went silent. A severe case of meningitis left her alive but deaf, suddenly treated differently by everyone. Her deafness downplayed by society and doctors, she struggled to “pass” as hearing for most of her life. Countless cures, treatments, and technologies led to dead ends. Never quite deaf enough for the Deaf community or quite hearing enough for the “normal” majority, Virdi was stuck in aural limbo for years. It wasn’t until her thirties, exasperated by problems with new digital hearing aids, that she began to actively assert her deafness and reexamine society’s—and her own—perception of life as a deaf person in America. Through lyrical history and personal memoir, Hearing Happiness raises pivotal questions about deafness in American society and the endless quest for a cure. Taking us from the 1860s up to the present, Virdi combs archives and museums to understand the long history of curious cures: ear trumpets, violet ray apparatuses, vibrating massagers, electrotherapy machines, airplane diving, bloodletting, skull hammering, and many more. Hundreds of procedures and products have promised grand miracles but always failed to deliver a universal cure—a harmful legacy that is still present in contemporary biomedicine. Blending Virdi’s own experiences together with her exploration into the fascinating history of deafness cures, Hearing Happiness is a powerful story that America needs to hear. Praise for Hearing Happiness “In part a critical memoir of her own life, this archival tour de force centers on d/Deafness, and, specifically, the obsessive search for a “cure”. . . . This survey of cure and its politics, framed by disability studies, allows readers—either for the first time or as a stunning example in the field—to think about how notions of remediation are leveraged against the most vulnerable.” —Public Books “Engaging. . . . A sweeping chronology of human deafness fortified with the author’s personal struggles and triumphs.” —Kirkus Reviews “Part memoir, part historical monograph, Virdi’s Hearing Happiness breaks the mold for academic press publications.” —Publishers Weekly “In her insightful book, Virdi probes how society perceives deafness and challenges the idea that a disability is a deficit. . . . [She] powerfully demonstrates how cures for deafness pressure individuals to change, to “be better.” —Washington Post

Experience life as it is in the U.S. for those who cannot hear.