#deafblindness

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I'm making a fantasy/adventure series, and I'm trying to feature more disabled characters in my work. One of them is DeafBlind (born deaf, losing vision), and I originally made him an archer. I did my research on blind archery, and I found out that sports-wise, there are many blind archers - but, I'm not sure competitive archery skills would translate to a battle setting. Especially since in a battle, there are probably lots of moving targets at especially far distances.

Is there a way to keep my character an archer without it falling too much into the Daredevil trope? Or should I try to give him a different weapon or ability?

Hello!

I think there's definitely a way to work with this while still keeping your character as an archer. That being said, I can't really give many suggestions without knowing a bit more about your character, the setting, and their circumstances.

For instance:

What kind of vision loss do they have? Are they developing blind spots? Losing their peripheral vision? etc.

How quickly is their vision loss progressing? If it's progressing quickly, they may need to change their approach sooner than later.

You mentioned the setting is fantasy. Does your character have any special powers/abilities? Are they human or a different species?

What level of technology does your world have?

What kind of combat/fighting are they engaged in? Are they hiding in a tree and sniping at enemies in a forest below? Are they firing at invading enemies from a high-up tower in a castle? Are they in the midst of battle and firing at close-range? etc.

This is less relevant but still good to know: Are they fully deaf? Do they have any hearing left?

I'd also like to ask what you mean by with "Daredevil trope". Does your character have super senses or are you referring to something else?

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

[salvadorbonaparte]

"Was Helen Keller a Fraud?" is my video essay recommendation of the day. It covers systemic ableism, language acquisition, conspiracy theories and the way people have tried to brand Helen Keller as either a fraud or a mythical inspirational figure based on their own agendas.

[disabilityaware]

Hearing people can learn sign language. Deaf people cannot learn how to hear.

Loni Friedmann

[deaflepuff]

[Image Description: Black background with white text in English, underneath in ASL Manual alphabet, and Braille that reads: DeafBlind Awareness Month.]

Did you know that in Canada in June, it is National DeafBlind Awareness Month?

This has been recognized in 2015 on June 26, officially by Senate of Canada. There are up to 65,000 Canadians who are Deafblind. This month is also Helen Keller’s birthday, a well known Deafblind individual that everyone knows.

This month is where us DeafBlind individuals show the world that we are capable of doing what we set our minds to. We also, show the challenges we face has DeafBlind individuals.

Want to learn more? This month I will be posting information regarding DeafBlind related stuff! 

Check out DeafBlind tag or “What is DeafBlindness?” for more information!

[cripplecharacters]

I have this xenofiction idea set in an alien solar system. One of the intelligent species ideas i had are octopoid-looking but terrestrial creatures that communicate via bioluminescence, and don't vocally communicate but do have hearing.

I started thinking about how blind members of this species would communicate. Does tactile sign language work if you only have identical tentacles and no fingers or toes?

Hey!

My first idea when you mentioned identical limbs was the Lorm alphabet. It's a kind of tactile communication (not really a sign language, more of a signed letter-by-letter transcript) that is virtually unknown outside Central Europe and Georgia in my experience. It requires a single limb from each person. For the Lorm alphabet, you tap and stroke the person's hand (or foot, I've seen it adapted to a double arm amputee too) and the amount of taps and their position (also line or circular movements) signal specific letters. Here's a video to visualize it from the French DeafBlind association - TLDW: two people using Lorm at great speeds at a conference.

What that means for alien creatures who have identical limbs is that there could be Aliorm alphabet where a specific spot on the tentacle signals a specific letter/syllable/binary code/etc and thus allow them to communicate. So if the aliens have some way to codify their bioluminescence-based language into a written system, they could use that.

Another option is to do another kind of non-oral language. Humans have ones that rely on hearing, seeing, and feeling, but aliens could have ones that are based on smell or taste. Especially if they original one is bioluminescence, I don't think it's too farfetched to imagine they could produce other chemicals that perhaps could be smelled as a form of alien olfactory language.

I'd personally love to see the Lorm alphabet in any sort of media ever, but considering you're writing about aliens, you have a lot of possibilities - there's no one single correct answer unless you find a blind alien to ask.

I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[cripplecharacters]

How do you teach a deafblind person what the signs in tactile sign language mean? Especially if they were born deafblind and propably don't know, for example, what an object is?

Hi!

DeafBlind kids will learn objects through touching, just like they'll learn tactile sign language. Give a kid a blanket and tell them it’s called “blanket” and they will learn. No kid knows what an object is until someone explains it; DeafBlind kids will just learn mainly by touch.

Please also consider that not every DeafBlind person is 100% deaf and 100% blind (very few are!) so they will likely have some level of residual hearing and/or vision. Also, many DeafBlimd adults were not born both deaf and blind; usually they were born with one or neither and then lost the other sense.

Another tool that may be useful to a DeafBlind person is ProTactile, a form of tactile sign language that uses constant touch feedback to convey reactions, and provides a DeafBlind person information about the layout of a space in addition to what is being said. Here is a link to an introduction to ProTactile for more information.

Mod Rock

The link above mysteriously died at some point - here you can check out the ProTactile Principles and here are some introductory lessons to ProTactile. I heavily recommend checking out more work of aj granda, Jelica Nuccio, and John Lee Clark if you want to learn more about ProTactile and (western) DeafBlind culture.

mod Sasza

[cripplecharacters]

I'm aware of tactile sign language, but how do you explain to a deafblind person what the signs mean? You propably can't just show the thing?

Hello,

First, there's the Anne Sullivan method, used to teach a form of tactile sign language to Helen Keller, who was completely DeafBlind and had little language acquisition before she became DeafBlind. What Anne Sullivan did was spell the words out, letter by letter, onto Helen's palm while giving her the thing the word meant- for example, she would spell the word water while holding Helen's hand under a running faucet. Because Helen didn't already know the words for these things, it took her a while, but eventually she realized that the things Anne was doing, the tactile sign language, meant the same thing as the thing in her other hand- the letters d-o-l-l (doll) meant the doll in her hand.

But Helen Keller was a special case because she was completely DeafBlind (most DeafBlind people aren't completely DeafBlind) before she could acquire a lot of language and because she wasn't taught a tactile sign language until she was around seven. Most deafblind people don't fall into all or even any of those categories.

For someone who was born DeafBlind, they'd likely be taught a tactile sign language in place of a verbal and auditory language, and they would pick it up as seeing and hearing children pick up verbal language. When babies acquire language, none of them know what it means at first. They repeat it because they perceive it, until the day they realize that the sound they're making has a meaning- mama means the woman who feeds them. Someone born DeafBlind would pick up the sign for mama in the same way. This thing means that woman who feeds me.

For someone who'd acquired some form of language before they became DeafBlind- such as someone who lost their vision and hearing to meningitis, like how Mary Ingalls became Blind- or a Deaf person who later went blind, or a Blind person who later went deaf- it's a matter of basically helping them connect their old language to this new one. They know this item in their hand is a cup and they know that someone is always pairing this item with a certain tactile stimulation, such as spelling cup into their hands, so they realize that this is probably another way of saying cup, similar to the way they used to say cup. It might take a few tries for them to fully grasp it, but, like with all language acquisition, they learn

Mod Aaron

Hey!

It's important to remember that most DeafBlind people aren't completely deaf and totally blind (only 1% of US children are), and mostly aren't born DeafBlind either. With that said, completely DeafBlind kids will learn words through the senses that they have - mostly touch. Just like how sighted people learn by sight and touch, and hearing learn by sound and touch.

For example, you could guide someone's hand under running water, and sign "water". Or hand them a cup with water, let them touch it and feel what's inside, and sign "drink". Let them inspect the splash of water on the floor and sign "puddle". And so on. The learning is done by touch instead of sight or sound - a DeafBlind person will have to get their hands on everything and study it that way.

And if the person isn't DeafBlind from birth and has acquired language before that, you could always teach them by palm-spelling or similar methods. Sign "tree" and draw it on their palm, etc.

Here's a reddit post from the DeafBlind subreddit about learning with responses from DeafBlind people, and this article about teaching younger DeafBlind children written by a teacher.

I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I'm writing a fantasy story set in a setting that focuses around 12-13 century BCE. My main character, who is not the POV character, has progressive blindness due to a genetic disorder and has lost most of his hearing in one ear due to an explosion in a battle. Given that magic exists very sparingly in this universe, and no one close to him has such powers, he uses only a cane and later, a guide animal for his blindness.

I just read through your blog and I realised it might seem a little disrespectful to not accommodate other avenues of aid, especially for his hearing loss. I wanted to ask if I should add anything else, and if so, what would be appropriate for the period?

P.S.: He is also a warrior, and he fights pretty often; is that unrealistic with the aids that are involved?

Thank you for maintaining the blogs, this has been greatly educational

Hi!

So, while we don't have a lot of commonly known resources about disability in this time period because of the in general more limited resources about it, we actually found a resource that might help you a lot!

This website is called Disability History and the Ancient World, and focuses on exactly what it says lol. To quote it: "Quite contrary to disability studies for other periods, research into this subject has just begun to develop and specialists are few." It has a huge bibliography of various research papers and articles, in various languages and about various topics. Not all of them have links, but they can be copy-pasted and then searched for and whatnot. More specifically, we found an article about deaf men in the 13th century BCE! Here's the article, and here it is in PDF form if that's easier.

For more general practical writing advice, you can play a little fast and loose with accuracy. You kind of already have, a bit, with the aids for blindness – but also with fantasy, and also because you kind of have to, in a setting we know relatively little about!

It is, however, pretty accurate that wherever people are deaf, they develop sign languages to communicate. It might not historically have been a standardized language in a widespread way, but people everywhere want to communicate. If you're being a bit anachronistic anyway, which again, is totally fine especially in a fantasy setting, you could also make it so that a braille-like language exists already; and/or a tactile sign language that's somewhat known. Those are aids that DeafBlind people use today that could translate pretty well to the setting.

As to the combat/warrior, I would say that a guide animal is much less realistic to have in combat than the cane. You also mention that his blindness is progressive, which means it might vary from battle to battle depending on how his blindness progresses and how often he has to fight.

Thank you for your question, by the way! I think we were all a bit fascinated because no one has asked us anything about this time period before.

– mod sparrow

P.S.: For historical context for anyone else other than the original asker, this time period is 1300-1101 BCE, and the numbers go 3-2-1 instead of 1-2-3 because they're counting down to 0. It's around this time that it's the Late Bronze Age and later the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the Shang Dynasty is in place in China, it's the 19th Dynasty of Egypt, and the mythological Trojan War has its symbolic dates (it might be based on a real conflict, or not, we don't know for sure).