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A DeafBlind Character Not Wanting to be Blind

Note: DeafBlind is written with an uppercase D and B with respect to Deaf culture and for the ease of screen-readers respectively.

I am not DeafBlind myself and so I’m not sure. I think all the additions you listed could be beneficial, but I don’t have a way to measure how beneficial. I don’t feel comfortable giving an answer about blindness here because I am not DeafBlind. However, I didn’t want to leave you with nothing, so I wanted to share a few links.

Vision is indeed important to Deaf culture. However, there are Deaf people like YouTuber Jessica Kellgren-Fozard who are blind in one eye or otherwise visually impaired. There are DeafBlind people such as writer Elsa Sjunneson. They are still part of Deaf culture.

A character who loses vision may have all manner of difficult, alternating feelings about it, particularly when learning new ways of doing daily tasks or if the vision loss progresses over time. However, realistic, messy feelings can still read as ableist (or not) depending entirely on how it is written and the way the story treats blindness and DeafBlindness. My suggestion is to try to find DeafBlind people online and listen to their experiences, perhaps even get someone to read your story. If you’d feel more comfortable, you could also ask blind people who aren’t Deaf to read your story as well, as extra readers. It sounds like that might give you more peace of mind.

Good luck and I hope this helps some.

Would any DeafBlind people like to add anything? Reply, reblog, or send an ask or message with your thoughts and I will add them here.

@wolfrayets added:

I am only Deaf, but I've found that since Deaf culture tends to be proud of/unapologetic for their Deafness (in terms of culture and a very widely accepted social model of disability), many DeafBlind people I meet in Deaf spaces are similarly unapologetic and outspoken about being DeafBlind. Deaf people communicate with DeafBlind people by signing against their palms, or in cases of low vision, DeafBlind people can often still make out ASL because it's based less on detail and more on overarching handshapes. Check out adapted ASL, tactile ASL, tracking ASL. So they definitely wouldn't need to be language deprived or isolated from the Deaf community if they are DeafBlind.

BlindBeta: I also notice something similar with a lot of blind folks, so I think this would be important for DeafBlind characters. Perhaps the character meeting DeafBlind people in the community might help them feel more confident.

On the sidebar on the left, there’s a list of languages listed in alphabetical order, so you have to scroll down a bit to find ‘Simple English’. But even if you can’t, you can just edit the URL from en.wikipedia.org to simple.wikipedia.org

Here’s an example of the difference between English wiki and Simple English wiki:

English:

Simple English:

This was based on true event. When I was an elementary student in a public school, surrounded by many hearing 4th-graders. I taught my class how to fingerspell so they can communicate with me. It was wonderful. (Yay for Rochester method???) So a lot of classmates would fingerspell H-I to me as a greeting.

One day, someone came up with a “shortcut” to say “Hi” to me by putting letter “H” and “I” into one form, which unfortunately and hilariously resulted in a shocker hand gesture. For the whole freaking week, I got that shocker hand shoved up to my face by other people by people as a greeting. It stopped a week later, I guess probably because a teacher banned it or other people found out what that gesture really meant, lol.

Educational note: It is considered culturally disrespectful if a hearing person makes up a sign or grant name sign to someone. Only Deaf ASL person can do that. This picture is a good example of why a hearing person should /NEVER/ make up a new sign without Deaf consultation, hahaha.

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No.

“Never wear your hair up.” “Never tie it back.” “Don’t tuck your hair behind your ears.” “Get the same color as your skin tone or your hair color to hide it.”

Unfortunately, this kind of thinking was drilled in my head for many years and made me insecure and ashamed about a part of me that I SHOULDN’T be. It wasn’t until I was 23 when I finally embraced it and accepted it.

Do. Not. EVER.

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES

Tell your child(ren) to hide a part of them. Do not make your child(ren) ashamed.

Teach your child(ren) to love themselves, every flaw, their skin tone, every hair, whether it’s on their head (example: curly or kinky hair) their arms, their legs, their face.. teach them to love everything about themselves. Otherwise they spend many, many years hating themselves while searching and hoping for the wrong person to love them… when they could have loved themselves from the start. Teach your child(ren) they do NOT need someone to love them in order to love and accept themselves.

TEACH YOUR CHILD(REN) SELF LOVE.

DO NOT TELL YOUR CHILD TO HIDE A PART OF THEMSELVES.

Not their assisted listening device (cochlear implant, hearing aids, BAHA), their prosthetic(s), don’t give them lighting creams (skin tone) or call them demeaning names based on their skin tones, don’t tell them they need to lose or gain weight (which may either cause anorexia or bulimia), don’t ask them to hide that they have trouble reading or speaking (dyslexia, stuttering issues).. whatever it is..

TEACH. YOUR. FUCKING. CHILD. TO LOVE. THEMSELVES.

ESPECIALLY!

WITHOUT NEEDING SOMEONE IN ORDER TO DO IT.

THIS SHOW IS SO PURE!

Of course I had to show the best part: