Kaz Witko has lived his 36 years in a world of silence.
Profoundly deaf since birth, he and his wife Pam, who is partially deaf, communicate through lip reading and sign language.
Says Pam: “I think for me I live in two worlds and have two languages, the deaf language and the hearing language. I speak the deaf language because I was brought up with it.”
Pam’s parents were profoundly deaf, she and her brother, partially. Kaz also has a deaf brother, although his parents could hear.
Looking back, Pam says growing up and going to a normal school was awkward. With severe hearing loss in one ear and mild in the other, mixing in social situations was difficult.
“If I was being left out of things, I had to put myself in a group of people — it was difficult. It was easier on a one-to-one basis. Most teachers were understanding but it was up to me to tell them,” she remembers.
Kaz, speaking through Pam, says he is happy with life and is not worried about being deaf. He has accepted it.
He was educated at a school for the deaf in Perth, Australia, where he learned to speak and use finger spelling. Pam says deaf people usually lip read or use signs. “Mostly they lip read. If there is a word Kaz doesn’t understand, I would sign it,” she adds.
When Pam is not around, Kaz, who has his own upholstery business, gets people to write notes if he can’t understand.
The couple decided to start their own business six years ago after giving the matter considerable thought. Pam who was a typist-clerk before leaving her career to look after their three children (none of whom are deaf), helps out.
Kaz had wanted to be a carpenter but an employment bureau in Australia told him he couldn’t. “They said it was too dangerous because he was deaf,” says Pam.
She adds proudly that on completion of the upholstery apprenticeship he opted for instead, he won an award for most improved apprentice.
Pam says that since they have been in business, customers and contractors have been nothing but supportive. Obviously, there is no phone in Kaz’s workshop. Instead, clients ring Pam at home and she takes their orders or passes on messages.
The couple find that at times, the disadvantage of their deafness does mean they have to concentrate hard on what other people are saying. Pam can, with the help of a hearing aid, actually pick up what they say, and Kaz has to lip read.
Pam says she feels that ultimately she and Kaz do miss out on some things but find a general happiness with life.
“We have no interest in music because we can’t hear it. It is frustrating but you have got to accept it, you learn to live with it, and you make up for it in other ways.”
