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There are two worlds: the deaf world and the hearing world. There are some people in the deaf community that feel that hearing people look down on us.

The auditory perception is not sufficient for our knowledge of the world; it does not have vastness.

I actually think the deafness makes you see clearer. If you can't hear, you somehow see.

The handicap of deafness is not in the ear; it is in the mind.

But people who think they can project themselves into deafness are mistaken because you can't. And I'm not talking about imagining what a deaf person's whole life is like I even mean just realizing what it is like for an instant.

I like to say that the greatest handicap of deafness does not lie in the ear, it lies in the mind. I hope that through my example, such as my role on 'The West Wing,' I can help change attitudes on deafness and prove we can really do everything... except hear.

There is no relation to sound for deaf people. It is a totally different mental process.

We have made mistakes. In our haste to do all things for all people, we did not foresee the full consequences of our actions. And when the people raised their voices, we didn't hear. But our deafness was only a temporary condition, and not an irreversible condition.

The plain man is familiar with blindness and deafness, and knows from his everyday experience that the look of things is influenced by his senses; but it never occurs to him to regard the whole world as the creation of his senses.