Since multiple hearing people in this fandom decided to gatekeep Taylor’s music and question my deafness because I said Taylor’s vocals on Gasoline are amazing, here’s a thread on how I listen to music. 1/

1. deafness is a spectrum. People who are deaf have hearing loss ranging from moderate - profound. Mine falls into the category of severe - profound. Some sounds I cannot hear without hearing aids and others I can, but they’re quieter than most people. 2/

2. I have hearing aids. My newish ones are even Bluetooth compatible so that I can stream music right from my phones to my hearing aids. They literally have a music setting that helps with it as well. 3/

3. I use Apple Music’s synced lyrics feature! It helps me comprehend the words that I cannot get from just listening. This is honesty the main reason I do not use Spotify - they don’t have that feature & without it I miss a lot. 4/

4. before I had Bluetooth hearing aids I still listened to music. I had simple hearing aids and turned the music up really loud like in my car. If I was using regular headphones, I usually maxed out the volume and still missed a lot. 5/

5. Even if those first 4 things did not apply to me and I had 0 hearing and no hearing aids, you don’t have to be able to hear to experience music. Everyone experiences music differently, just because it doesn’t match YOUR experience does not mean it isn’t possible. 6/

6. I do not mind answering questions about my disability, but if you ask me a question please do not do so in a way that implies I’m not actually deaf because I listen to music. Just because your experience isn’t the same as mine doesn’t mean I can’t listen to music. 7/

7. questioning someone’s disability because they do things you had previously thought were not possible for a specific disability is ableism and stereotyping and honestly just shitty behaviour. 8/

In conclusion: I listen to music with the help of accessibility aids. I also play guitar and sing. Also, this is not the experience of every deaf person, it is mine. Like I noted deafness is a spectrum and everyone experiences it differently. //