As I start out, i am but one driver.

Yeah,  So I'm Deaf.   For those not well versed in deaf culture lingo,   technically I'm Hard of Hearing, with 12 years of speech therapy I'm able to speak.

I was denied the language of American Sign language until I was in 8th grade where I started learning the true language for Deaf people.   From that point, I preferred to identify as "Deaf" because the barriers are REAL to me and they DO get in my way of pursuing life.  I was born like this, and to this day doctors do not know what caused the hearing loss.

I've been privileged to be around people who believe that anyone can do anything when they put their heart into it.  The people I partner with are noble and great people who patiently listens to the needs of other.

When I talk about barriers,  people ask what are they?   

 Barriers are things that gets in the way during the normal course of actions.  

For example,   I cannot hear the party communicating to me on the phone, so I have to resort to a video interpreting service that provides a sign language interpreter during the call.   Many times I have to wait for an interpreter to be available, or the caller cannot understand my speech, or the caller is impatient and doesn't take the time to deal with the call, or I cannot talk and drive at the same time because I cannot take my eyes off the road to look at the interpreter on the phone.   With that said, I tend to text exclusively or wait till I get home and do my phone calls off the laptop.  

Another example,  someone's knocking on the door, and I don't answer.

someone is talking to me behind me, and gets mad that I don't respond.

Someone with a huge mustache is talking to me at my face, and I cannot see his lips.

I have to pullup to the drive through window at the restaurant because I cannot communicate at the order box

People take advantage of deaf people

Basically it's a communications barrier,  and many times people mistake it with language barrier which is partly true as deaf people communicate in another language called "American Sign Language" also known as "ASL"   But the mistake is comparing with other language barriers such as speaking Spanish, or Mandarin.    That is different for a deaf person, because the language barrier is caused by hearing loss,  so the language barrier is considered a disability,  The people need to stop thinking it's like getting an interpreter for a migrant family, when it's for a disability first and foremost.   This is why it's majorly difficult for a deaf person to request an interpreter from someone who's required to provide one.  They need to start viewing it as a disability which accommodations must be provided.  

This is me.