Anybody can get hit by a car. Just because they're deaf, doesn't make them stupid, they have eyes, they can drive, and they sure as hell know the "look both ways rule".
you're less likely to get hit by the car if you know where it is and thus can try to avoid it. you're less likely to know where it is if you can't hear it coming. therefore, you are LESS ABLE to avoid the car if you can't hear it coming.
So, again, how is their lack of hearing a disability?
if you're really gonna refuse to acknowledge that being deaf directly makes dangerous situations more dangerous, then...well, you can't listen to music. i'd say that's a pretty big one considering how big of a part music is in...well, the vast majority of cultures, really. one of the most basic human senses is MISSING (or diminished to the point of near uselessness, i guess?) when you're deaf. or blind. that, by definition, is a DISABILITY. even if you refuse to see the possible negatives, you HAVE to admit that.
It's not like they can't effectively communicate w/ hearing people.
except that communication is less effective in general. sign language is slower then speaking, and i have no idea how you'd get the attention of a deaf person outside of arm's reach and not facing you. a flashlight, maybe? it's just more difficult then being able to call out to them.
Hell, id venture to say that it's not their fault that hearing people complain about them being not functional when every communication barrier they face stems from the fact that hearing people seem to be too lazy to learn the equivalent of fucking spanish.
this...this got me for a while. this got my blood fucking BOILING for so, so many reasons, and i've been having trouble trying to really get it all down. i think it's because of this part -
hearing people seem to be too lazy to learn the equivalent of fucking spanish.
i mean, one, learning an entirely new language is STUPIDLY difficult, especially for full grown adults. not only that, but it's really difficult to MAINTAIN that knowledge, especially when you're not really around people who can actually speak it very often, let alone people who actually DO speak it often. i can't even think of something to compare it too, it's THAT HARD. and i'm not exactly talking out of my ass, either. i live in canada, and here (or at least in my province) you HAVE to take french classes until 9th grade, and some post-secondary institutions only accept students who have the equivalent of an 11th grade language, so i took french until 11th grade. that shit was NOT easy, even as a kid, and if you asked me to write a paragraph in french it'd be utter shit, because i don't ever use it anymore and it's a pain in the ass to recall because of that.
now, retention probably isn't too big of a problem if you have a family member of friend who's deaf, but we're talking about ALL hearing people, eh? i mean, you said "hearing people" as in hearing people in GENERAL. and most "hearing people" probably don't know anyone who's deaf, at least not directly. that's a lot of experience in sign language that they WON'T be having. so why should i go through all the effort of learning a new language if, chances are, i won't use it anyway and my ability to communicate in it will go to absolute shit within less then half the decade?
but more importantly, why the fuck should ONLY hearing people have to put in the effort? now, if there's nothing those deaf people can do to be able to hear again, then yeah, but that's not the case, is it? this is about deaf people who, given the chance to NOT be deaf, would REFUSE to do so because "being deaf isn't a disability. what the flying fuckatache? so i have to learn an entirely new language because YOU DON'T WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM? no. i'm not doing that. if YOU'RE not willing to put in the effort, then why should I?
and your "equivalent to fucking spanish" comment? i wouldn't learn spanish because some spanish speakers came here, to an english-majority country, and refused to learn english despite having every opportunity to. and i ALSO wouldn't expect spanish people to learn english because i went to THEIR country and refused to learn SPANISH, despite having every opportunity to.
tl;dr: if you can't hear something like a car then unless it's in your line of sight you're not going to know, being unable to do something that humans have naturally evolved to do is a disability regardless of whether or not you associate any negatives with not having that ability, there's a reason being multilingual is considered an intriguing skillset, and if you're going to refuse to put effort into communicating then so will i.