wherin I hear a hearing user get pwned

[Dips]

It takes a lot of patience to deal with a world where stuff that is obvious to one part of the population is not obvious to everyone. My blind co-workers can attest to that. It's tiring when every simple encounter becomes a massive q&a session because everyone has to be educated about things that they have known for ages. Or, like your customers, they get blown off because someone just doesn't want to deal with accomodating them or doesn't understand what is going on.

In an ideal world employers would train employees that relay calls exist, that they can expect them from time to time, and that all they have to do when they get one is listen to the operator's instructions.

In an ideal world people who get relay calls would listen to the operator even if they are puzzled about what is going on and haven't been trained by their managers to expect them from to time. Listening and instruction-following are not difficult skills, you know?

But the world isn't ideal. If it were, this site wouldn't exist.

[HYHYBT]

If you're going to go that way, in an ideal world, nobody would be deaf.

[smileyeagle1021]

If you're going to go that way, in an ideal world, nobody would be deaf.

Believe it or not, that is way closer to fratching territory than you can possibly realize. There are many within the deaf community who are actually happy to be deaf, that yes they have lost that one sense but what they apparently gain in other senses (this is true of any lost sense apparently) makes up for it.
Would I give up my hearing to be able to gain more in other senses, no way in hell, but who am I to judge what someone who is born that way feels about how they are born.

[Solumina]

Yes they have lost that one sense but what they apparently gain in other senses (this is true of any lost sense apparently) makes up for it.

Completely off topic but this reminded me of a dinner party that a friend of mine threw a while back. It was a blind dinner party, like when we sat down we were given blindfolds so that we couldn't see the food at all because that completely alters the way that you experience food. It was actually pretty darn cool, despite the fact that I got a lot of the first course on my face before figuring out how to eat without seeing the food.

[Damien]

Completely off topic but this reminded me of a dinner party that a friend of mine threw a while back. It was a blind dinner party, like when we sat down we were given blindfolds so that we couldn't see the food at all because that completely alters the way that you experience food. It was actually pretty darn cool, despite the fact that I got a lot of the first course on my face before figuring out how to eat without seeing the food.

I have done that before - it was a great experience.

A lot of my family is deaf (mum, grandma, grandpa, niece, uncle, myself - in part), we speak in sign and voice at the same time. Over the phone, most relatives (who have part deafness) have a device (cannot remember what it's called) that amplifies the voice. I have spoken to my grandparents by relay before - wasn't that hard of an experience, nor was it irritating at all - the operator I found was most professional.