I don't remember what or how, but I once had this image in mind and I drew two worlds with a bridge between them.
One world was the deaf world and the other was the hearing world, and you could cross from one world to the other.
When I was eight, and you were five, we were already aware of these two worlds...
...and had already drawn that bridge. We called it Aflas.
Like Atlas, but with an F. Because we wanted to combine deaf and hearing.
And when hearing people would do something strange from our deaf perspective, we'd say that was Aflas.
For example, when my father would make a certain sign, we'd giggle at each other and say: "Aflas!!!"
Terrible, right... But we were already aware of those two worlds back then.
Well, I just liked mentioning that.
–You're talking about, ehm... two worlds...
–Two worlds, but with a bridge between them. –Exactly, two worlds.
What a wealth, two beautiful worlds. Not with handicaps, or one better than the other, but both with their own culture.
And you don't have to choose, you can live in both and cross the bridge when you want to.
And that "bridge" is communicating in sign language and having an open attitude.