I’M DEAF. MY being deaf seems to be significant to other people. “Why do you speak like that?” This question has recurred throughout my life: usually explosively from the mouths of small children unable to contain the excitement of their curiosity, but sometimes expressed with a flicker of puzzlement across an adult’s brow.

“What can you hear?” is usually the companion question. Without my hearing aid, if I am concentrating and if the sounds are made loudly, I am aware of those sounds at the deeper end of the scale. Sometimes, it’s not so much that I can actually hear them, it’s more that I know that those sounds are happening. My aural memory of the deep-register sounds helps me to “hear” them, much like the recollection of any tune replays itself in your imagination.