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Some Final “Listen” Notes

I’ve been meaning to post this for ages, and so here it finally is: just some final notes about my Deaf!Phil/mute!Dan AU fic “Listen,” about the process of writing it, and about some resources you may want to check out. This is rather long, because I did a lot of research and have a lot of resources to offer, so I’ll put most of it under a cut.

Some General Comments and Thoughts

First, I wanted to point out a couple of statistics. Approximately 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, but only about 20% of those children’s parents learn to sign. I think that's incredibly sad. A lot of deaf children are not introduced to language as early as hearing children are, even though (statistically) babies can sign better at a younger age than they can talk. As a result, most deaf babies are denied language for the first few years of their life, which are a crucial period for linguistic learning. The current Deaf culture movement lobbies strongly for deaf children to be taught sign language from birth to give them the same opportunities for learning that hearing children have.

Second, I wanted to point out something that I learned about d/Deafness while researching this story. Many many many d/Deaf people do not consider their lack of hearing a "problem" that needs to be "fixed." Many are proud to be d/Deaf. I try to participate in the movement to raise awareness that deafness is not a disability or a handicap—it's just a different way of interacting with the world—and that Deaf culture is as valid and rich and beautiful as any other culture. They just use a different language.

Third, I wanted to say something about some of the words I used in this fic. While writing this story, I struggled constantly with using words like "say," "talk," "hear," "listen," etc., when I was writing about characters who did not use their voices to communicate. For example, "I don't want to talk about it," "He didn't know what he was going to hear" (before Dan "talks" about his past), etc. It didn't feel natural to always use "sign," when "saying something" isn't actually about producing sounds with your mouth—it's about communicating. In sign language, they have creative ways of dealing with this, so if someone were to sign, "I listened to him tell that story," they might use the ASL or BSL sign for "listen," but make the sign under their eye instead of under their ear ... showing that they “listened” with their eyes. It’s amazing how flexible, expressive, and creative sign language can be! (This example was thanks to Rogan Shannon's response to a question I left in a comment on one of his videos. A link to Rogan’s excellent YouTube channel is below.)

Some Specific Videos and Resources

Some specific videos and resources that I found particularly interesting:

“What is it like to be DEAF?”: a truly phenomenal, moving, very personal video by a man named De'Angelo Brown, talking about his painful experience growing up d/Deaf surrounded by people who did not understand or support him. His positive attitude despite such a difficult past is inspirational. The video is just one man signing, in black-and-white, with no background, but this video is incredible, really. I recommend that everyone watch this.

"Deaf Lens": a TEDTalk by Wayne Betts Jr., an innovative deaf filmmaker. I feel like my Deaf!Phil could totally have ended up being a filmmaker like this later in his life.

"What's It Like Being Deaf In College?": a video about d/Deaf students' experiences in mainstream universities, which made me think about my Deaf!Phil at the University of York.

Camp Mark Seven: a deaf film camp, created entirely for deaf kids who want to become filmmakers. They sometimes make music videos, one of which—Pharrell Williams's "Happy"—went viral on YouTube for a while. Notice that they perform ASL *interpretations* of songs, not word-for-word translations, because word-for-word translation isn't really how sign language works. Facial expression, body language, and other visual cues contribute tremendously to sign language communication, and you can see a lot of that in Camp Mark Seven’s videos. I imagine my Deaf!Phil would have loved this camp when he was a kid!

"My Song": a beautiful, poignant short film about d/Deaf identity. I know I have recommended this film before, but I thought it was worth mentioning again, because it is so beautiful and amazing.

"The Enchanting Music of Sign Language": a fascinating TEDTalk by Christine Sun Kim, a deaf artist who uses sound as part of her art. So incredibly cool!

Wells Fargo’s commercial about sign language: Yes, I’m actually including a commercial here! Wells Fargo made a commercial about a same-sex couple learning sign language in order to adopt a deaf child, and it’s incredibly sweet and short enough that you can watch it without committing too much of your time.

“Opening Our Ears to the Deaf”: a TEDTalk by a hearing woman named Pamela Weisman about the hearing world’s difficulty in understanding, accepting, and interacting with the people who are deaf.

“Protecting and Interpreting Deaf Culture“: a TEDTalk by a Deaf woman named Glenna Cooper who was raised mainstream by parents who did not accept her deafness and tried to force her to fit into the hearing culture. She talks about her discovery of Deaf culture, language, and pride. She describes very entertainingly some of the difference between Deaf culture and hearing culture, such as the fact that Deaf people apparently tend to be very blunt and honest in comparison to hearing culture. She’s really funny and articulate and well worth watching!

There are a lot of other TEDTalks about d/Deaf issues, and so if you’re interested, I recommend just searching for “deaf TEDTalk,” and you’ll find lots of neat stuff.

YouTube Channels

These are my favorites of the YouTube channels I discovered while researching for this fic. I mentioned some of them in my previous notes post, but here I’ll give you a slightly different list of just my favorites, and with a bit of description of each so you can have a better idea of which ones you might be interested in checking out:

Rogan Shannon: Rogan is my favorite of the YouTube channels I discovered while writing this fic. He makes simple vlogging videos in which he just discusses various topics that interest him (always in ASL but with excellent captions). He talks about d/Deaf issues, LGBTQIA+ issues, books he's been reading, and other random stuff ... but he is always articulate and animated and intelligent and interesting. I can't recommend his channel highly enough. I subscribe to him and watch his videos pretty much immediately when they come out. He doesn’t have nearly as many subscribers as he deserves!

ASL Stew: A lesbian married couple—one Deaf and the other a hearing ASL interpreter—talk about various d/Deaf issues. Notice that though one of the partners is hearing, she usually does not SimCom in the videos & chooses instead to sign in ASL, then add a voiceover translation in editing. (They actually add voiceovers for both of them, though I believe the Deaf woman does not in fact speak orally, so no captions are necessary.) In fact, in one of their later videos the hearing partner discusses the issues with SimCom and expresses regret that she SimCommed in their earlier videos. They also have a side channel, ASL Stew Life, where they make videos about other stuff, mostly just about their lives (such as their current pregnancy), rather than about deafness-related issues.

Rikki Poynter: Rikki is, I think, the youngest of the YouTubers I’m listing here, which may make her more relatable for many readers of my fic. She often has really interesting things to say, and she’s a very active advocate for accessibility (especially good captioning of YouTube videos) and the D/deaf community in general. The two videos of hers that I found most useful in my research and particularly recommend are "From Being An Oral Deaf Adult to Using ASL" and "How I Discovered the Deaf Community.”

Jessica Kellgren-Fozard: Jessica posts a wide variety of content on her channel, including make-up tutorials, hair tutorials, commentary about vintage fashion, disability issues (including videos about accessibility and how to deal with specific disability issues like chronic nausea, because she has significant physical disabilities) as well as deafness related material. She’s absolutely beautiful and charismatic, with an incredible sense of style, and also occasionally posts charming videos that feature her much less fashion-conscious but still incredibly cool hearing wife, who is a dentist. Her channel isn’t ideal if you’re looking for sign language stuff, though, because she’s very oral and uses a very English-language-based version of sign language (called “SEE” or “Signing Exact English”) instead of actual BSL. Even when she signs, she speaks at the same time, so there are no captions needed.

Sign Duo: This is a channel featuring another deaf/hearing couple, but I actually primarily like that their channel because it mostly isn’t about D/deaf issues. When the channel first began, it was mostly about the fact that he’s Deaf and she’s hearing and how that affects their relationship, but now their channel is mostly just about these two young people (in their 20′s) living their normal lives in Southern California ... just the guy happens to be Deaf and the girl happens to be hearing. So they post videos about all kinds of stuff other vloggers post about, including their most recent videos about carving pumpkins for Halloween and doing some kind of spicy ramen challenge. It’s interesting and cool to see a Deaf/hearing relationship normalized. This is just a Deaf guy living his life with his girlfriend, like any other guy. Sometimes the girl translates for her Deaf boyfriend, but I still always turn on captions, because he often signs things she doesn’t translate.

CODA Brothers: CODA stands for "children of deaf adults," and they are a community whose place in the deaf/hearing world is an odd one, since even as hearing children they often grow up with sign language as their first language and continue to use it as their preferred language in adulthood. Many of them identify as part of the Deaf culture/community. The CODA Brothers channel is basically just two brothers in Minnesota, kind of wacky, who are hearing but were raised by deaf parents, and (like many CODA) they prefer to communicate through signing. They make humorous videos about lots of issues around d/Deafness as well as what it's like to be CODA (feeling like you don't really fit in with either the hearing or the Deaf community). They sign almost all of their videos and usually provide their own voiceovers ("for the ASL impaired"), but a lot of their humor is "inside jokes" that you only get if you're at least a little familiar with ASL, Deaf culture, CODA issues, etc. They're also often really sarcastic (such as in their "What Deaf people LOVE about Interpreters" video. I think their channel is primarily intended for a CODA audience, but I really like them. And if you’ve read my fic “Listen,” then you probably know enough about deafness, sign language, and Deaf culture to get a lot of their jokes.

Well, I think those are the last of my lingering notes from the writing of “Listen” that I’ve been meaning to share. I hope some of you find the information interesting and check out some of these videos and YouTube channels. Deaf culture is very interesting and unique, completely separate from hearing culture, and I think we could all be better informed and prepared to interact sensitively and respectfully with d/Deaf people we may encounter in our lives.

Thank you to everyone who expressed their growing interest in Deaf culture and learning sign language as a result of reading this fic. It meant a lot to me that my story impacted people’s awareness, acceptance, and understanding.

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