BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Deafness Can a deaf person drive? Tell me your experiences

When my son was taking drive's ed I talkd to the instructor about the fact that he had Asperger's.

He said thast was perfectly OK, he had special ed students that he needed to make adjustments for before - such as a deaf girl.

I told him I didn't realize deasf people could drive, because I thought you needed to be able to hear emergency vehicles.

He told me that deaf people tended to be better drivers because they weren't distracted by things like the radio, cell phones or other people talking.

Just like what you said Angela

Absolutely Angela. I think we check more because we only have our visual sense.

I am severely hearing impaired. It's not my disability that prevents me from driving, though; it's my anxiety or fear of being killed in a car accident (if that happened, it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy!) and my terrible sense of direction.

Thanks to the wonderful hearing-aid technology, I would be able to drive safely if it weren't for the above variables. But I could NOT drive safely in a car full of people; the noise of people talking would overwhelm me.

I have an auditory processing disorder and don't necessarily hear when I'm concentrating - such as concentrating on driving. Hearing isn't important to driving at all and I would say that overall, passengers telling me about potential hazards has been in the unhelpful to dangerous range much more than they've been helpful. Here in Portland, most of the emergency vehicles run with lights only anyway (except possibly at intersections.)

Julie

I couldn't agree more. Thanks for your comments

Even I agree with you, a deaf person should not be allowed to drive and also personally he should drive. Driving may cause injury to himself and also to many innocent people. If they want to drive, they should go for hearing aids first and then go for the drive.

I live in Olathe Kansas, the home of the Kansas State School for the Deaf. Kids come here to go to school, and they stay because our town has a vibrant deaf community and a deaf cultural center.

If deaf people could not drive, we would have a lot of deaf people walking. Yes, deaf people can drive. As in all populations, there are good drivers and lousy drivers. They can see the flashing lights on emergency vehicles, so the siren is just frosting on the cake.

One poster said that they don't talk while driving, so they are safer. Wrong. They do talk when they are driving, and that is hazardous, since they sign, it can take their eyes off the road. A brief comment is fine, but a protracted conversation is downright hazardous!

Should deaf people drive? Absolutely! Should they talk and drive? No way!

I am hard of hearing, but it hasn't affected my driving significantly.