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quotesfrommyreading · 1 year

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When I’m out with Deaf friends, I put my hearing aid in my purse. It removes any ability to hear, but far more importantly, it removes the ambiguity that often haunts me.

In a restaurant, we point to the menu and gesture with the wait staff. The servers taking the order respond with gestures too. They pantomime “drinks?” and tell us they learned a bit of signs in kindergarten. Looking a little embarrassed, they sign “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day” in the middle of asking our salad dressing choice. We smile and gently redirect them to the menu. My friends are pros at this routine and ordering is easy ― delightful even. The contrast with how it feels to be out with my hearing husband is stunning.

Once my friends and I have ordered, we sign up a storm, talking about everything and shy about nothing. What would be the point? People are staring anyway. Our language is lavish, our faces alive. My friends discuss the food, but for me, the food is unimportant. I’m feasting on the smorgasbord of communication ― the luxury of chatting in a language that I not only understand 100% but that is a pleasure in and of itself. Taking nothing for granted, I bask in it all, and everything goes swimmingly.

Until I accidentally say the word “soup” out loud.

Pointing at the menu, I let the word slip out to the server. And our delightful meal goes straight downhill. Suddenly, the wait staff’s mouths start flapping; the beautiful, reaching, visual parts of their brains go dead, as if switched off.

“Whadda payu dictorom danu?” the server’s mouth seems to say. “Buddica taluca mariney?”

“No, I’m Deaf,” I say. A friend taps the server and, pointing to her coffee, pantomimes milking a cow. But the damage is done. The server has moved to stand next to me and, with laser-focus, looks only at me. Her pen at the ready, her mouth moves like a fish. With stunning speed, the beauty of the previous interactions ― the pantomiming, the pointing, the cooperative taking of our order ― has disappeared. “Duwanaa disser wida coffee anmik? Or widabeeaw fayuh-mow?”

Austin “Awti” Andrews (who’s a child of Deaf adults, often written as CODA) describes a similar situation.

“Everything was going so well,” he says. “The waiter was gesturing, it was terrific. And then I just said one word, and pow!! It’s like a bullet of stupidity shot straight into the waiter’s head,” he explains by signing a bullet in slow motion, zipping through the air and hitting the waiter’s forehead. Powwwww.

Hearing people might be shocked by this, but Deaf people laugh uproariously, cathartically.

“Damn! All I did was say one word!” I say to my friends. “But why do you do that?” they ask, looking at me with consternation and pity. “Why don’t you just turn your voice off, for once and for all?” they say.

Hearing people would probably think I’m the lucky one ― the success story ― because I can talk. But I agree with my friends.

— I'm Deaf And I Have 'Perfect' Speech. Here's Why It's Actually A Nightmare.

#rachel zemach #austin andrews #disability #ableism #deafness #sign language #speech #asl #american sign language

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whumpinggrounds · 1 year

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Writing Deaf Characters

I am making this a series now so pls drop requests if there is something you’re curious about!

Disclaimer: This is all based on personal experience and research, all of which relate to the American Deaf experience. It’s not perfect, nor is it representative of a global experience of d/Deafness. If you plan to write a d/Deaf or hard of hearing character, please do your own research! This is intended to give people a few ideas about where to start.

Vocab

Deaf = Refers to the cultural experience of being deaf and immersed in Deaf communities.

deaf = Inability to hear some or all sound.

Profoundly deaf = Inability to hear almost all or all sound.

d/Deafblind = Inability to hear some or all sound and as well as having some level (usually high) of visual impairment.

Hard of hearing or HOH = A person whose inability to hear may not rise to the level of deafness or profound deafness, or simply may not identify with the term.

Deaf of deaf = A Deaf child born to Deaf parents.

CODA = Child Of Deaf Adults. This refers to hearing children, not d/Deaf children.

Manualism = Refers to the belief that d/Deaf children should be taught only sign language and should not be taught or expected to learn to speak.

Oralism = Refers to the belief that d/Deaf children should be taught only to speak and should be discouraged from learning or using sign language.

Bilingual-bicultural or bi-bi education = A school of thought that combines oral and manual education for d/Deaf children.

Mainstreaming = The belief that d/Deaf children should be educated in the same schools and classrooms as hearing students. (More widely refers to the belief that disabled students in general should be educated in the same schools and classrooms as nondisabled students.)

Deaf gain = The Deaf community’s answer to the term “hearing loss.” Rather than losing hearing, a person is said to be gaining Deafness.

Cochlear implant/CI = A medical device implanted into the inner ear which (debatably) produces sensation that is (somewhat) analogous to hearing.

American Sign Language or ASL = An American system of communication consisting of hand shapes, hand movements, body language, facial expressions, and occasionally, vocalizations.

Signed Exact English or SEE = A manner of communicating that directly translates English words into signed equivalents.

Home sign(s) = Signed communication that is specific to the signer’s home or community, which may not exist or be recognized in the wider world.

Identity First Language or IFL = A system in which someone is described first by an identifier that they choose and feel strongly connected to. Examples include describing someone as an Autistic woman, a disabled individual, or a Deaf man.

Key Elements of Deaf History

Can’t emphasize this enough - this is a VERY abbreviated list! It is also not in order. Sorry. That being said:

For a long time in America, Deaf children were not educated, nor was it considered possible to educate them. When this did change, American deaf children were educated in institutions, where they lived full-time. These children were often taken from their families young, and some never regained contact with their families. Some died and were buried at these institutions, all without their families’ knowledge.

In the early 20th century, oralism became popular among American deaf schools. This mode of teaching required lip reading and speech, no matter how difficult this was for students, and punished those who used or attempted to use sign language. Pure oralism is now widely considered inappropriate, outdated, and offensive.

Hopefully you’ve gleaned this from the above points, but d/Deaf schooling, education, and the hearing world’s involvement are a very sensitive subject. Proceed with caution. It’s unlikely your d/Deaf character would have a neutral relationship with schooling.

Helen Keller is probably the most famous deafblind person in America. In her time, she was also known for being a socio-political activist, a socialist, and a vaudeville actress. There are dozens of other famous d/Deaf people who are a quick Google search away. Give your Deaf character Deaf heroes, please.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, was passed in 1991, and represented a landmark victory for disabled activists in America. Among its provisions were closed captioning for Deaf individuals, ASL interpreters for public services, and the right for d/Deaf children to attend accessible, accommodating public schools. The ADA is a HUGE deal. It’s also not perfect.

In 1961, cochlear implants were invented. I was going to write more about cochlear implants here, but it’s too long. New section.

Cochlear Implants

Massively massively massively controversial in the Deaf community. Always have been, potentially always will be. For people who strongly identify with Deafness and the Deaf community, CIs are an attack on their identity, their personhood, and their community’s right to exist.

Do not allow people to “hear.” The input that a person receives from CI can, with physical therapy, training, and time, be understood and processed in a similar way to sound. This does not mean it would be recognizable to a hearing person as sound. It is often described by people who have them as being metallic, buzzy, or robotic. YouTube is a great resource for sound references.

In order for a cochlear implant to be effective, a personal will have to participate in years of training and therapy to correct process, understand, and interpret the feedback given by the CI. This is not negotiable. Even if your character just lost their hearing in an accident last week, a CI will not allow them to instantaneously regain that hearing. Nothing that currently exists in the real world will do that.

CIs, to be most effective, are almost always implanted when the recipient is very young. This decision is often made by hearing parents. This, again, is massively controversial, as Deaf activists argue that it violates the child’s bodily autonomy and is inherently anti-Deaf.

A cochlear implant, once placed, irreparably destroys any residual hearing that the recipient may have had. This is because it penetrates the inner ear in order to function. This residual hearing cannot be regained, even if the cochlear implant is not used.

Deaf people do choose to get cochlear implants of their own accord. Many d/Deaf people are very happy with their cochlear implants! It is still a highly charged choice in light of the political history surrounding d/Deafness and hearing.

Notes About American Sign Language

ASL is not a signed version of English. It is a distinct language, with its own vocabulary, slang, and grammar. Just a sentence would not be constructed the same way in Russian, Spanish, or Tagalog, a sentence in ASL would not be a direct translation of its English equivalent.

Deaf people have historically lower rates of literacy. This is not due to a lack of intelligence; it is because ASL and English are two different languages. ASL has no written equivalent. In order to be able to read or write, d/Deaf children must learn an entirely different language. This means that it is not realistic to always be able to communicate with d/Deaf people through writing.

As ASL is a visual language, many signs started out as very literal gestures. This means that many older signs are continuously being phased out as they or their roots are recognized as stereotypical or offensive. Please be careful in researching signs. I recommend Handspeak or Signing Savvy for accurate, relatively up-to-date information.

Many online “teachers” do not have credentials to teach ASL, and especially due to the prevalence of “baby sign,” home signs, invented signs, or false information spreads unchecked. If you see multiple different signs advertised for the same English word, please be diligent in checking your sources.

Not every English word has a distinct signed equivalent, and not every sign has an English equivalent.

SEE is almost never used by Deaf people. It’s rarely used and is generally thought of as a “lesser” version of both English and ASL.

ASL is a complete, complex, nuanced language. A character would not switch into SEE for a technical conversation or really any reason. Complex ideas, technical terms, and even poetry can all be expressed in American Sign Language.

Just like in English, there are some signs that are only considered appropriate for certain people to use. For example, the sign for “Black” when referring to a Black person has a modified version that is only used by Black signers. This does not mean it is a slur or the equivalent of a slur. It is a sign reserved for Black signers referring to other Black people.

Things to Consider/Avoid/Be Aware Of

I hesitate to tell anyone to avoid anything, because I don’t think I have that authority. That being said:

The Deaf community has a complicated history and relationship with cochlear implants and the concept of being “cured.” What message are you sending when you write a story in which a d/Deaf character is “cured” of their d/Deafness?

Generally speaking, d/Deaf people do not identify with the “disabled” label. Each person has their own preferences, and those preferences should always be respected. Your character(s) may choose differently than their real life community, but you should put thought into why that is.

Generally speaking, d/Deaf people use IFL. This means that a majority of d/Deaf people in America would describe themselves as d/Deaf people, rather than people with deafness, people with hearing loss, people that are hard of hearing, etc.

Okay I lied I’m going to tell you what to do here: Do not use words like mute, deaf-mute, or dumb when describing d/Deaf people. Hearing impaired is also not ideal but is considered outdated, rather than outright offensive.

The best lip readers are judged to be able to catch 30% of the words people say. How realistic is it to have a character that relies 100% on lipreading? What do you gain when you write a character that lipreads, and what do you lose?

Yes, Deaf people can drive. I don’t know why so many people wonder about this. It’s okay if you didn’t know, but please don’t come into my ask box about it.

Assistive Devices/Aids

Cochlear implants ^ see above

Interpreters. Will have gone to school for years, might have specific training for certain environments or technical terms, etc. For instance, an interpreter that works with Deaf people that have mental illnesses would be fully fluent in ASL as well as having requisite mental health training in order to interpret for them. Interpreters could be a whole other post actually, but I won’t tackle that now.

Closed captions. Self-explanatory.

Alarm clocks, fire alarms, and doorbells that use light instead of sound. This is sometimes a typical flashing light, but particularly fire alarms in predominantly d/Deaf spaces can be overwhelmingly bright. Bright like you’ve never seen before. Bright enough to wake someone from a dead sleep.

Some assistive devices also use sensation - alarms that actually shake bedframes exist and are the best choice for some people!

Service dogs - can alert people to sounds like the above - fire alarms, doorbells, knocking, etc.

Hearing aids. Generally not controversial in the way that CIs are. Only effective if people have residual hearing. Do not really expand the range of sounds people can hear, just amplify sounds in that range. Very, very expensive.

Microphones. If a d/Deaf or HOH person is in a crowd/lecture setting, the speaker will want to use a microphone. If this is a frequent occurrence, the microphone may be linked to a small personal speaker or earbud used by the d/Deaf or HOH person.

TTY: Much less frequent now that everyone can text and email, but stands for Text Telephone Device and was/is a way to send written communication over a telephone line. The message is sent, the phone rings, and a robot voice reads the message. Obviously, this is not effective for d/Deaf people communicating with other d/Deaf people, but it was often used to communicate with hearing people/hearing establishments, as when setting up appointments.

Media About/Including Deafness

No media is perfect and unproblematic, but here are somethings I have seen that I can verify do at least a pretty good job -

CODA is a movie that features Deaf actors, ASL, and a story about growing up, family, and independence vs. interdependence.

The Sound of Metal is a movie that features ASL and a story about identity, recovery, and hearing loss/Deaf gain.

A Quiet Place is a movie features ASL and Deaf actors, although Deafness itself is not necessarily integral to the story.

BUG: Deaf Identity and Internal Revolution by Christopher Heuer is a collection of essays by a Deaf man that discuss a wide range of topics. This book is not always up to modern standards of political correctness.

Train Go Sorry by Leah Hager Cohen is a memoir by the granddaughter of a Deaf man, which discusses the intersections of the hearing and Deaf worlds.

Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon is a research book about the effect of horizontal identity on parent/child relationships and features a chapter on d/Deafness. This is a good look at how d/Deafness can impact familial relationships. Some aspects of the book are outdated, and it was written by a hearing author, albeit one who extensively interviewed Deaf and hearing parents of Deaf children.

If you made it this far, congratulations! Thank you so much for taking the time to read through my lil/not so lil primer :) If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or feedback, please feel free to hit me up! If you have any requests for a diagnosis or a disability you’d like me to write about next, I’d love to hear it. Happy writing!

#writing disabled characters #writing disability #writing advice #longpost #deafness #deaf characters #writing deaf characters #disability writing guide #hard of hearing #hard of hearing characters

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thebridgetonarnia · 1 year

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I wanna talk about Hard of Hearing Steve Harrington! I posted a version of this on twitter but wanted to edit and expand it slightly here. so please enjoy some HoH!Steve finding community through his and Eddie's deaf daughter.

Steve and Eddie weirdly have Richard Harrington to thank for their daughter. One of his mistress's had a child who was born deaf.

Richard wanted nothing to do with this child, or the girl's mother. He scoffed at the woman who just wanted some help, and told her "It looks like all his children are broken, and Harrington's demand perfection."

So this young woman - younger than Steve is at the time - who is alone in the world puts the child up for adoption, and as next of kin, Steve gets a call, asking about a child.

He and Eddie immediately say yes, of course they'll take the child. They'd been thinking about children for a long time, but they hadn't been so lucky in that department. Steve's half sister, as it happens, needs a home, because their good for nothing sperm donor of a father abandoned them both. So they will raise her, as their own, and she will never be made to feel othered, or lesser than. They name her Hope.

Steve has been wearing hearing aides for years now, he and Eddie had thought idly about learning sign language over the years, but they've never been able to commit. It always gets pushed to the side for other things, and Steve hears well enough anyway with his aides.

But with Hope? They buy all the books, and take lessons with Robin at the community college, because she's going to need it to communicate with the world.

Steve picks it up quickly, and he and Eddie watch as their infant toddler picks up language and can communicate with them. It's really a sight to see.

The guy who teaches the class is a CODA, child of deaf adults, and he puts them on to the Deaf community in the city, urges them to make sure their kid grows up with people like her.

So once again, they dive head first into the community, because Steve and Eddie would rather die than make Hope feel isolated. They take Hope to kid friendly Deaf events, they meet Deaf adults, and slowly as Steve talks to other Deaf people, he realizes that something just clicks for him.

Something had slotted out of place inside of him the second his hearing started to go, when he started to feel like he wasn't built for the world around him anymore, and people started to treat him differently for wearing hearing aides so young.

Eddie and the Party have always made him feel comfortable, they always make sure they look at him when they speak to him, never tell him never mind, or I'll tell you late when he misses anything. But even with all that support, he sometimes still feels like an outsider. But that off-balanced thing slides right back into place when he's at Deaf events with Hope because these people understand him so fundamentally.

Steve makes friends - outside of their little found family - actual friends who see him for who he is, not for what he lacks.

He wears his hearing aides less and less, and sign gets used in their home more and more, even when Hope isn't around. He starts to identify as Deaf. It feels like when he started dating Eddie, like the world opened up to him.

He's so so grateful to his father for the first time in his life because his affair brought Hope into their lives, and she is the best thing that ever happened to him and Eddie, and she gave Steve a community of people that made him feel comfortable in the world again.

And when Steve finds the Deaf Queer community? Well that just feels like coming home.

#also the party obviously learns asl too #varying degrees of skill #but they all learn because they all love steve and hope and want her to feel part of the family #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #hoh steve harrington #deaf steve harrington #stranger things #steddie dads #sab writes

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doberbutts · 4 months

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That question you got asked about "what if a white person calls themselves black" just immediately shot to mind a Tiktok I saw a while back of a black teacher whose white student (8yr old iirc) called him a "fellow brotha" and said he was "step-black" because his black step father told him so. Wish I could find it, the way he described the kid and how he answered questions was adorable

So to distance from race for a moment:

I am a CODA- a Child Of a Deaf Adult. My father is Deaf, I've talked about his deafness before many times. The Deaf and HOH community came up with their own label for people like me who are not Deaf themselves but have found space within the Deaf community due to their proximity to their Deaf parent/s. This adjacency means that while many CODAs do not experience the world the same way their Deaf family members do, we also are in a weird position where we have witnessed or even been required to help directly with the problems Hearing society throws at Deaf people.

In other words, despite not being Deaf myself, my worldview still more closely aligns with that of my Deaf father as a direct result of having been raised by him. I don't have nearly as much proximity to the Deaf community as a guy whose videos I see every so often but can never remember his name, who is also a CODA and typically signs in all of his videos to make a point to his Hearing audience. This is partially because *my dad* was denied access to the Deaf community and Deaf culture for a long time due to both being black and also being raised by the abusive asshole that caused his Deafness in the first place.

Not all communities have words for this type of adjacency, but some do. Ghat's why I said that a white person calling themselves black probably does have some sort of proximity to blackness. Were they adopted by black parents? Are they part of a blended family where they are the whitest person of the lot? Are they mixed race and just have more dominant European features? Are they black but with a genetic difference such as albinism that causes white skin and blonde hair? Since it's not always possible to know at a glance, there could be very legitimate reasons for someone you pegged as white to call themselves black.

Or, they could be an asshole that's lying for clout. But I find those are a lot less common than (general) you'd think.

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cripplecharacters · 17 days

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Hello!

Just to tell you: you mentioned CODAs in your ask about the twins (one deaf and one hearing) and I thought about the movie.

I always thought it was a wordplay about the musical term and the MC being the youngest in the family. Never saw the title explained (non-English speaking country) in articles and such. You educated me more in a short reply than a pile of articles about inclusivity in the industry.

Thank you for teaching me something new!

Hi!

This made me realize I did not actually fully explain what CODA means--it stands for "child of Deaf adult" and refers to a hearing kid raised by Deaf parent(s) / in a culturally Deaf environment. I've usually heard CODAs considered as culturally Deaf, but they have a unique experience as hearing people raised in a Deaf world.

CODAs typically know sign as their first language. Depending on when and how much they are exposed to spoken language, they may or may not struggle to learn spoken language, or need speech therapy to learn.

The experience of being a CODA is fairly varied and really depends on the environment each person grew up in. (A person whose family is multigenerational Deaf and everyone they interact with is Deaf will have a very different experience than a kid with one Deaf and one hearing parent, for example.)

I hope this helped!

Mod Rock

#mod rock #coda #anonymous

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ronanceautistic · 3 months

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Do you have any headcanon for hard of hearing Nancy?

hello anon! yes!

I will say before shit went down she had very good hearing, canonically! She’s always been able to notice shit the others don’t (rustling in the woods, the flesh monster coming to the cabin, the deer whimpering). But I think after Season 3 her hearing didn’t necessarily get all that worse but she definitely had tinnitus, probably quite badly for the first few weeks after Starcourt, and then it got better but it was still kinda there as background noise. After Season 4 is when I think she would’ve actually become hard of hearing, that shotgun is loud as shit, with no ear protection in a cramped room.

I think at first she assumes it’s going to get better in a few weeks like it did last year, so she doesn’t tell anyone. But after that she realises she is still not hearing shit but she’s kinda in denial about it and tries to make it work, but I think people notice. I think her grades slip a little because if she’s in the back of the class she can’t hear the teacher, she’s turning up the TV or the radio really loud, she’s not doing what Karen tells her to do because she didn’t hear the instruction. I think everyone close to her kind of catches a glimpse of her acting weirdly until eventually someone puts the pieces together and is like “…Nancy, can you not hear?”

She definitely would want to learn sign language. I don’t think it would be much help in a small town like Hawkins where no one else would really know it, but in Boston it definitely would. But it’s hard to find good resources to learn in Hawkins and she finds herself getting frustrated with it sometimes. I think it’s especially hard on her because her dream job as a journalist requires so much communication with people and she feels like it’s going to be impossible.

I have a headcanon that Argyle is a CODA (child of deaf adult), i honestly don’t remember where it came from but now it’s like canon in my brain. So I think he could teach her a bit of ASL or even MSL depending on what he would’ve grown up with. But yeah, I think Nancy is definitely a little torn between this fascination and desire to learn this whole new language and culture but also grieving what she feels like she’s lost. Some days she’s really eager to learn, some days she wants to lock herself in her bedroom and not talk.

She would probably get hearing aids, I think most of all her parents would be like… very insistent on it, especially Ted who is not willing to meet her halfway to learn even simple signs. But it does frustrate her sometimes, especially after a long school day where she’s been using them all day, probably has a headache, and she still can’t take them off at the dinner table because her parents want to “have a conversation” (even though that has never gone well even back when she could hear).

Robin absolutely learns sign language for Nancy and ends up becoming better at it than Nancy herself, and finds herself teaching Nancy.

Also on a more angstier note it definitely makes her even more terrified of Vecna. She has no idea if the music would work anymore.

Sorry this turned into an essay, no one has ever asked me this before I got excited. Also I am not hard of hearing so apologies if I got anything wrong.

#nancy wheeler #stranger things #robin buckley #ronance

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