thatsaverygoodpost reblogged
Holy shit.
Well that’s horrifying and memorable, and something I feel compelled to use in a story someday.
thatsaverygoodpost reblogged
Resources For Writing Deaf, Mute, or Blind Characters
Despite the fact that I am not deaf, mute, or blind myself, one of the most common questions I receive is how to portray characters with these disabilities in fiction.
As such, I’ve compiled the resources I’ve accumulated (from real life deaf, mute, or blind people) into a handy masterlist.
Deaf Characters:
Dialogue with signing characters (also applies to mute characters.)
Mute Characters
Blind Characters:
Characters Who Are Blind in One Eye
Deaf-Blind Characters
If you have any more resources to add, let me know! I’ll be adding to this post as I find more resources.
I hope this helps, and happy writing! <3
Updated with more resources, specifically for characters who are blind in one eye.
thatsaverygoodpost reblogged
Blind people must save a lot on electricity.
stomatium
They do actually!
I had a blind professor, last semester, and I swung through his office to make up an exam. It was a while before I knew he was in there because he was sitting with the lights off. I finally went in, apologized, and took the exam by the light of a nearby window (which was fine). Forty-five minutes into dead silence he panicked and yelled in this booming voiced, “WAIT, YOU CAN SEE!!!” before diving across his desk to turn on the lights. I’m sure he was embarrassed but I thought it was endearing and it highlighted a large aspect of disabled life that I hadn’t previously considered.
Sort of relatedly I once had professor who was deaf, but she had learned to read lips and speak so she could communicate easily with hearing people who didn’t know sign language. One day she had gotten off topic and was talking a little about her personal life, so that one of the students said “Oh, I know, I grew up in Brooklyn too.”
She stared at him for a long time and then said “How do you know I’m from Brooklyn?”
And he said “You have a Brooklyn accent.”
She said “I do?” and the whole class nodded, and then she burst out laughing and said “I had no idea! The school where I learned to speak was in Brooklyn. I learned by moving my mouth and tongue the way my teachers did. So I guess it makes sense that I have their accent, I just never thought about it.”
My moms a sign language interpreter, and she’s signed with people from all over the US. According to her, when she signs with people from the south they sign with a “drawl.” They have slower hand movements and exaggerate certain parts of the sign. People from the Midwest sign very fast and people from the south sign very slow.
So we were at a restaurant once and my mom started interpreting for someone who was trying to order and she was like “oh you’re from the south!”
And they were like “how did you know that?”
And she said “you sign with a drawl.” And they were really surprised that it came through that much.
It’s really interesting that even when not speaking verbally accents and heritage come through.
urbanfantasyinspiration
Humans are so fucking fascinating
thatsaverygoodpost reblogged
ublock-origin
Koko the gorilla did irreparable damage to the average hearing person's understanding of sign language
I would love to learn more if you've got a rant locked and loaded
ublock-origin
Koko, as with most "signing" apes, was "taught" modified ASL (bc their hands are different and they physically cant make all the same signs we can) by hearing scientists who did not speak ASL. They would learn a few signs, and then teach them to the apes, who would associate signs to objects and rewards.
The most jarring thing was, the apes are completely unable to learn grammar, and would say things like "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you" (actual quote by Nim Chimpsky), which their handlers would interpret as a sentence, when in reality the apes are simply mimicking signs in hopes of getting a reward. Those hearing handlers would see things like "Nim eat" and "eat Nim" and intepret those as equally meaning "Nim wants to eat".
More damning, the lack of understanding of ASL by the hearing scientists meant that most of what Koko and Nim Chimpsky "spoke" was purely the scientists just seeing what they wanted to see. A Deaf person was brought in to interact with Nim, and they were instructed to not give him any food until he signed "food". They spent hours with an increasingly distressed chimp who did not sign anything, but Nim's hearing handlers would see him move his hand close to his mouth and go "oh! there it is! he signed it!", and while they spent the whole day signing, they didnt see Nim signing back.
With Koko, her handler would claim Koko would sometimes mix up signs like "need/knee", "I/eye", "people/nipple" because they "sound alike/rhyme" but... they don't. Those words rhyme in spoken English. They don't rhyme at all in ASL. Koko wouldn't know those words rhymed in english because she DIDN'T speak english, she "spoke" modified ASL. Of course, as the scientists did not speak ASL either, they didn't realize it, and just assumed random movements Koko meant were signs, and tried to think what she "could have meant instead" by thinking of what words sounded like the ones equivalent to what she had just "signed", even though an ASL speaker would not make a mistake like that.
I'm not even going to get into the fact that almost all of what those apes signed was due to direct prompting from scientists, the fact that they did not use language when alone, or the fact that most of what they answered was complete gibberish (which resulted in videos like Koko's climate address (yes, really) having to be heavily edited and cut to make it seem like she was actually speaking anything that made sense).
One really nasty side effect of this was like. The amount of hearing people who decided to try learning ASL and other sign languages because of the vague possibility of being able to communicate with apes, instead of, you know, the ACTUAL possibility of communicating with and appreciating Deaf people. (one person even said that Koko inspired them to learn ASL so they could communicate with their deaf friend, like... why the fuck did your FRIEND not inspire you to learn ASL??? did you really have to wait for a fucking gorilla failing to learn sign language to think "hmm, maybe talking to my friend would be nice!"??????)
The talking ape experiments helped cement in hearing people's consciousness the idea that ASL, and sign languages in general, are just poorly transcribed forms of spoken English that can be easily learned even by a chimp, instead of complex, independent languages with their own histories, cultures and internal variation.
A fantastic video essay about this subject by Soup Emporium
Yet another frustrating thing is that nobody who has done these experiments has been themselves fluent in sign language, so they didn’t even prove that apes couldn’t learn! They proved literally nothing, and only spread misunderstanding of ASL!
thatsaverygoodpost reblogged
It feels like I’ve talked about this before, but to me the funniest version of Portal is if Chell is deaf.
Like, most of the major story beats, at least the ones that directly affect her, have a prominent visual component so she’s following along with the basics. But she has no idea who cave johnson is, or what wheatley was trying to explain to her, and she certainly wasn’t hurt by any of glados’ insults.
but the best part of this headcanon is imagining glados checking chell’s personnel file years down the line, noticing the word “deaf” for the first time, and just going “WHAT???”
Glados learning sign language so Chell can hear at least one of her excellent monologues and Chell just closes her eyes
thatsaverygoodpost reblogged
This is created for recent trending #whyIsign. #whyIsign was started by Stacy Abrams. She wanted to spread knowledge about sign language, how it helped so many deaf people and families, like myself, and to encourage more people to learn and use sign language, especially with deaf children.
Even More notes on writing deaf characters
Talking
- People talk to themselves and that includes Deaf people
- I sometimes sign to myself, but whether I mutter or sign depends on why I’m talking to myself
- Cooking? Verbal speech to keep myself on task. Trying to work out an emotional scene? Signed speech.
- And using my whole body to talk to myself is allows more creative freedom
- Also even if a Deaf person identifies as non-verbal, they might still talk
- maybe a hearing person wouldn’t recognise it as speech, but sound is a part of signed language
- so muttering and breath-noises are common.
- It’s also worth mentioning that “sounding deaf” isn’t what you think it is.
- We don’t yell or make incoherent noises (usually)
- and even if we do, that’s fine
- but generally, people who are Deaf over-enunciate and speak very clearly.
- This is either intuitive and perfected over time, or taught in speech therapy.
“How much can you hear”
- People love to ask this question, and I can’t give them an answer.
- Unless I’m feeling snippy. Then I usually ask “Well how much do you hear?”
- They can’t answer either.
- Ergo, if you’re hearing and writing a d/Deaf character, don’t compare the way they hear the world to the way that a fully hearing person would.
- Be particularly wary of percentages
- I’m 75% deaf
- and I have no idea what that means
- because hearing loss is very nuanced.
- I’ve met someone who is 80% deaf, but she could hear in pitch ranges that I couldn’t.
- Hearing aids don’t emulate sound either
- so how a d/Deaf character hears with them in won’t be at the level a hearing person would
- it’s also very obvious that the sound is electronically enhanced.
- Putting in earplugs and walking around like that will not provide “Deaf experience”
- you’re better to listen to Deaf people telling you how they experience the world.
The craft itself
- Don’t fret about your word choices initially
- you have the privilege of hearing and that’s okay
- you take sound for granted, don’t worry about it.
- (Yet)
- Once you’ve got the story how you want it, set aside a whole revision just for using the right language if your POV character is Deaf
- printing out your manuscript in a different font is very helpful
- it’ll make it easier to pick out “red flag” words and phrases.
- Whenever you find a chunk of writing focused on sound/hearing, highlight it
- and then tear it apart.
- Can your character actually hear that owl hooting, or would the background noise be too blurry?
- Would your character hear the sound as it is, or would they have an association that overrules the sense?
- I.e. do they see a raven open it’s beak and think about black bubbles of ink in their throat? I know I do.
- Cross out any hyper-focus on sounds or re-write them in a different way.
The golden rule
- Don’t write deaf characters
- Write people who happen to be deaf
- Please, include us.
- Thank.
How to Write Deaf Characters - From a real Deaf person’s perspective
Hello readers and writers alike, I would like to point out something that has been so glaringly annoying to me and other Deaf/HoH people so that we can end all these misconceptions. People who write for Deaf!Readers should know a few things before starting their imagines, fanfictions, blurbs - anything. It is not anyone’s fault for not knowing these things, most hearing people are not aware of the Deaf community or Deaf culture so here I am, a Deaf person who is majoring in Deaf Studies and Culture, coming here to tell you a few things to know when writing for a Deaf!Reader
(Remember this is my experience as a Deaf/HoH person and it may differ from person to person but this is what I learned/have slight annoyances within writing)
- Deaf and Hard of Hearing is a culture. Yes, most people consider it a disability but IT IS NOT SOMETHING WE ARE ASHAMED OF! Please stop writing fics/imagines about Deaf!Reader being ashamed of not being able to hear or getting hearing aids to impress their SO. It’s completely wrong and just annoying. We are proud of our Deafness and we don’t want to be fixed.
- DO NOT USE THE TERM ‘HEARING IMPAIRED’! This is basically a slur word. It was widely used in the ’90s but now it’s considered a derogatory term. Just use Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Or ‘deaf’ if the person is medically deaf and not culturally Deaf. (see next point)
- Deaf and ‘deaf’ are different. Deaf is a cultural term for people who are born Deaf and raised in the community. The term ‘deaf’ is used in the medical field or used to describe someone who has hearing loss that does not associate with the Deaf Community. Usually, a hearing person who has become deaf later on.
- Sign language is not a worldwide language. There are different types of language within sign language. ASL is for American and Canada. BSL is for Britain. So if you’re writing a story that takes place in a country that is not America or Canada, do not say ASL.
- ASL does not = English. Same for every other language. ASL is its own language with grammar rules and semantics. It does not directly translate to English. So if you’re writing ASL most likely write in GLOSS or write it as you would write a hearing character. (Sentance: I want to go to the mall and buy a dress. GLOSS: I WANT WANT GO TO MALL I. ME BUY DRESS ME )
- Deafness is on a spectrum. There is a legal threshold that someone must pass to be considered legally Deaf. Some Deaf people can hear more than others. I can hear high pitched noises sometimes. I know someone who can hear voices but can not hear what they are saying. Both of us are Deaf and we both cross that threshold. So when writing your Deaf!Character make sure to set a bar of what they can and can not hear.
- Hearing Aids do not cure anyone’s deafness. It only helps hear some sounds and maybe hear if people are talking. Not what they are saying although it can help with that depending on how far they are on the Deaf scale.
- Cochlear Implants are very controversial in the Deaf Community so if you’re going to write about them do your research!!! They are also not a cure for Deafness, just an aid.
- Deaf people are not masters at lipreading! Even the best lip readers can only make sense of 30% of what is being said. I’ve been lip reading for years and I still only understand a little bit of what is being said. So no, your character is not going to miraculously know what’s going on from lip reading.
- DO NOT have your characters yell at your Deaf characters. DOES NOT MATTER HOW LOUD YOU ARE! We can not hear you. Neither can your character. Have your other hearing characters speak normally. That’s the best way to lip read if they must.
- Most Deaf people are born from hearing parents. It’s really rare for a whole entire family to be Deaf (Although I’ve met some and it’s super cool). But your character is probably born to hearing parents.
- ALSO, the majority of hearing families with Deaf children do NOT learn ASL. It sucks but it’s true. Only about 30-40% of families learn sign for their Deaf family members. So keep it in mind,
So this is my list for now! I may add to it the more I think about things but this is basics I think everyone should know. If I forgot some then feel free to add! (as long as you are knowledgeable about the topic please). If you have questions please message me! Or if you need someone to proofread your Deaf!Imagines then I almost here for that. So happy writings everyone!
ILY