Myth III- Deaf people can read and write without a problem.

Generally, deaf people have difficulties in reading and writing. This is because in the learning read-writing process we must associate forms to sounds. If we can’t hear, this association is affected.

The natural language of deaf people is sign language. To acquire this language, hearing is not a requisite because it’s a visual-gestural language. In the case of oral languages, in order to write we have to associate the phoneme /a/ to the letter “A”. This process is complicated for deaf people, especially for those with severe deafness. Another factor to consider is that grammar in sign language isn’t the same throughout, in that reading in English to a deaf person is like reading poorly translated Spanish to us.