Being deaf
"The only good access service I’ve ever gotten is Cued Speech. In a basic sense, Cued Speech is a system that uses signs for sound. It was invented to battle the spectacularly low deaf literacy rate. (The average reading level of deaf 17- and 18-year-olds is at the fourth grade level.2) "<p>Wow.  That is seriously depressing.  I can't even imagine being deaf and not reading a lot.  (I actually don't think my life would be seriously negatively impacted by being deaf; it would be an excuse to take meetings on IRC and via email, which would improve productivity for everyone; I already largely prefer subtitled video content.  The only thing I'd really miss is listening to audiobooks while driving.)<p>(I've known several deaf and a few blind people who are amazing software engineers; over the Internet, it's pretty hard to tell.)