Keeping it real.

Bachelor Nation fans first met Abigail Heringer on Season 25 of “The Bachelor,” and she went on to find love with Noah Erb on Season 7 of “Bachelor in Paradise.”

During her time on the Bachelor Nation shows, Abigail opened up about her hearing loss and how she wears a cochlear implant.

And she’s been continuing to educate her followers about being deaf and wearing cochlear implants on social media.

Abigail took to her series “Hear Me Out” to discuss some of the things people have said to her that she says you “should not say to a deaf person.”

Abi kicked off the video by saying, “This week, I want to talk about things you should not say to a deaf person, and these are all things that have been said to me at one point in time since I’ve had my cochlear implant. First one is, ‘You speak really well for a deaf person.’ This one is tricky because I know most people have good intentions when they say this to me, but if you want to compliment my progress with my speech therapy, just say that I speak really well.”

She went on, adding, “When you add in ‘for a deaf person,’ it just comes across as ignorant in my opinion. A lot of deaf people can speak really well, and I don’t think you would just walk up to a deaf person and say, ‘You don’t speak very well,’ which is kind of implied with this statement. The next one is ‘Wow, you don’t look deaf.’ This one confuses me because what is a deaf person supposed to look like? My cochlear implant is hidden, so it does surprise people sometimes when I say that I’m deaf.”

Abigail shared that a better response is just to ask questions about what it’s like to be deaf. She said she loves getting those kinds of questions and it means a lot when people want to learn.

The Bachelor Nation star shared more phrases people shouldn’t say, like, “The next one is when people say ‘I’m sorry.’ I just feel like this should not be the first thing that comes out of your mouth when someone tells you that they have a disability. It sort of conveys that you pity us and a lot of us don’t see our disability as a negative thing.”

She continued, saying, “Another one is saying ‘I hate subtitles’ when we ask to put subtitles on. This is just a reminder that subtitles are one of the biggest accommodations for a deaf person. Then one of my favorite ones is, ‘But you can talk, and how come you don’t know sign language?’ This is just a reminder that deafness is a medical function of our ears and it’s not based on the language we decide to use to communicate with each other. Those statements make me feel like I have to prove that I’m deaf enough.”

Abigail wants people to know that if you’ve said something like this before, it’s okay as long as you’re willing to learn and grow.

She explained, “If you’ve found yourself being like, ‘Whoa, I’ve accidentally said one of those things to her; am I ableist or does she hate me?’ No, and that’s not what I’m trying to do here. I’m not trying to shame anyone that has said any of these things before. At the end of the day, we’re all learning and it’s always more about the intention behind the statement for me.”

Abi ended her video by saying, “If I see that you’re trying and you accidentally slip up or say the wrong thing, that is okay. All I want is for my circle to feel more comfortable around my hearing loss so that they keep asking questions and we can keep having those conversations and that leads to them being able to support me better as a deaf person.”

We love learning from Abigail and know that her continuing to use her platform for such important conversations will help so many others.