#deaf communication

[adhd-attention-deficit-dumbass]

I had a deaf costumer at my register yesterday.

It was the first time I actually met a deaf person and I had no idea how to act and it made her visably uncomfortable and sad. I was trying to ask if she wanted to use her membership coupon, not understanding that she couldn t hear me at first.

I have never felt so helpless and stupid. I had no idea what to do so I just sort of froze. But then I wrote my question down on an empty recipt paper and showed it to her. Her face lit up and she got to use her coupon. She looked geniuenly happy leaving the store. But I felt awful about how I wasn’t able to communicate with her, how I had made her uncomfortable and upset.

I met a deaf person for the first time at 21 years old, but deaf people have to meet people like me every day, all the time. People who can’t communicate with them, and have no idea how to help them out even when they want to. I can’t imagine how difficult that must be.

This is why awareness is important.

I use this blog as an outlet for my thoughts about ADHD, but my goal is also to spread awareness.

Today I want to use it to spread awareness for the deaf/hard of hearing folks on this plattform.

I want to educate myself and others, so I’m reaching out to the deaf/hard of hearing community on tumblr.

What are things I as a hearing person can do when meeting deaf/hard of hearing people to make things easier for you? What’s the best way to communicate with you if I don’t know sign language? What are some things I might not realize are offensive or upsetting? What are some struggles you face daily in public spaces?

Tell me in the comments, reblog or send asks, I’m very eager to learn.

By spreading awareness we can make the world a better place for all of us ❤️

[bleedinglace]

so i just heard that youtube is planning on taking away closed captions which will be EXTREMELY detrimental to the HoH and deaf community, as well as people who get sensory overload from audio.

here’s a petition to get youtube to change their mind.

please reblog and share this to people this is important, there’s no reason for them to be taking away such a vital piece of accessibility on their site.

[ohlookanotherblogonthishellsite]

Shout out to all the deaf people who relied on lipreading to talk to people but can't anymore because everyone wears masks now

[questions-i-wanna-ask]

How is the Deaf community doing right now?

[butterflyinthewell]

Okay, time to put this to rest once and for all.

This is a question for d/Deaf people who communicate in sign and also SCUBA dive:

Is it possible to start a conversation on land, suit up, get underwater and continue talking, or do the masks and regulators get in the way of the facial cues that come with signing?

[handfulofbees]

Hello world, my friend and I wrote a story together last year about a school for the deaf and blind in a modern fantasy setting. We want to take that story and turn it into something publishable.

The pitch is that our main character, Jay, signs up for the Blackwood private school for the deaf and blind as a person who is deaf. When he gets there, he realizes that the students all have unique magical abilities linked to their deafness and blindness. The school is essentially modern, emo Hogwarts.

, with a Strong Aesthetic™. He, as a normal student, has to navigate interacting with this crazy school and the incredible and sometimes downright spooky abilities of the students, including the cute boy named Aaron who is deaf because he can only hear the screams of the dead spirits in the school.

The problem? I am not deaf or blind. I have no idea if people would like having aspects of themselves being linked to magical abilities, a la Percy Jackson and the Olympians with demigod ADHD and dyslexia. As a person with ADHD, I adored that I could imagine ADHD as "battle reflexes" when I was a kid, but Rick Riordan had one on one experience with ADHD and dyslexia, and that is something I barely have in this area. Also, battle reflexes are super cool, but being able to hear the dead is creepy! Would people care about that? (It becomes an ability that the cinnamon roll character warms up to, has mixed feelings about, and uses to save his friends later on, but still.)

Obviously, we did lots of research. We looked up schools for the deaf and blind in our area, we learned about what a typical classroom environment would be like, how lessons would be taught. There was a lot of helpful content here on tumblr just to begin. We had read books/comics where characters who are deaf/Deaf and/or blind are acclaimed by the community to have decent representation, we learned a bit about the Deaf community. There was some pretty conflicting information, but we got by. I still have so much to learn and I've just barely tapped into this world.

We had a lot of fun as we learned a little ASL so that all of our main characters could be believably fluent. We learned about how many people feel ASL should be written--how many believe it should be written like spoken languages and treated the same way, how people who are blind and deaf/Deaf communicate.

I'm still shaky on, uh, 99% of all things in that area, which makes me think that I shouldn't pursue this project. I don't ever want to hurt or offend people. I want people to read this piece and feel seen, feel connections with the characters, feel the complexity of each person. I want people to be excited about the magic system and create their own OC students in the school and all of that stuff. I just want to have good representation.

Should I just let this go? I love the characters, the magic system, the aesthetic, so, so much. If anybody has any thoughts, please let me know. DM me, comment, reblog, whatever. If anybody wants to hear more about the story and how the powers work, that would be cool too.

[living-deaf-society]

Deaf Awareness:

Through the years, I’ve seen t.v., internet, and snail mail advertisements for audiologist and hearing doctor services telling me I can receive help for my hearing loss and/or deafness, and just as they get my hopes up, right at the end of it, they show a PHONE NUMBER and instruct me, the viewer, the deaf/hoh person to CALL for an appointment.

If I could call (which typically depends on the sense of sound to complete, which obviously I’m lacking since I need your services) for an appointment, I wouldn’t need the appointment.