#deaf character

Hi!

Sensory details are going to be key in representing this type of experience. Meniere's can take years for permanent hearing loss to occur, so I don't know if that's really "relatively fast" as far as progressive hearing loss.

One major thing to consider is episodic (sudden, temporary) hearing loss, which occurs alongside Meniere's vertigo attacks, and is definitely an easy way to practice your auditory sensory details. I don't have Meniere's (at least, I haven't been diagnosed with it) but I do have sudden hearing shifts that worsen my vertigo. It literally feels like one side of your head just shuts down. There's a sort of rush and then everything on that side is just quiet, and the whole world tilts to that side as well. It's pretty disconcerting!

For the more subtle permanent hearing loss, a decrease in background sensory details (electronics humming, cars going by, wind, background chatter, etc), accompanied by an increase in tinnitus, plus the auditory processing piece of missing words in sentences, can show a slow loss of hearing.

If your writing style isn't big on describing background sounds, missing words in conversations is going to be the most obvious descriptor. It's not really a gag unless it's specifically played up to be a joke, or only for humorous, low-stakes misunderstandings. People mishear things, and deaf/hard-of-hearing people mishear or miss things much more frequently, due to having an auditory disability. It's an incredibly frustrating experience, but much less so when the people around us are willing to accommodate.

secondly: I'm currently in the early planning stages of a story where one of the main group of protagonists is a d/Deaf woman (born with profound hearing loss). The way I've tentatively planned her backstory, she's French, she learned to lipread French first because that was what was spoken around her growing up, but the story is set in the USA and she can sign in both LSF and ASL. My question is, is it realistic for her to be able to lip read spoken English as well? It seems like it would look too similar, but I'm not d/Deaf/hoh myself so I don't know. Thank you again for all your help! :) (smiley face)

Hi!

Unless she has several years of English oral education, probably not. Lipreading is hard enough in a language you are fluent in. Even if your character knows written English, English and French have different pronunciations--they do look different when lipreading. Learning this nuance is pretty difficult, especially for someone born deaf. She might catch a word here and there, but her English lipreading is likely to be much worse than her French lipreading, if she can lipread English at all.

eg. Being able to lip read a conversation through a glass window, which reveals vital info to advance the plot. Or communicating via sign between prisoners held captive

just wanted to check this isn’t seen as a harmful or cliched trope? I remember a few years I saw a tv drama that received good reviews about a deaf lady (played by a deaf actress) who gets brought in by police to lip read a crusty CCTV recording

Hi!

So in the Deaf community, these perks are called Deaf Gain :) [smile face] They're things d/Deafness and Deaf culture provide that hearing people don't get. That includes talking underwater or over long distances/through barriers, not being bothered by loud environments, and chatting while eating.

Communicating while being held prisoner is not one of them. Deaf people signing is often treated as aggression or gang signs, which wouldn't help in a hostage situation. Especially taking into consideration that a kidnapper would likely wear a mask, Deaf people are at high risk for violence in that type of scenario.

The problem with something like lipreading crusty CCTV footage is that lipreading is a game of guesswork at the best of times. Deaf people aren't magic lip readers, we just get a lot more practice than most hearing people, since we rely on it for daily conversation.

Out of context, it's hard to catch more than a few words. And it is discernibly harder any time your hearing changes, because you're getting different auditory clues. Even the best lip readers struggle if there are multiple speakers, the mouth is obscured, or the lighting is wrong. I don't think anyone would actually do well at lipreading grainy security camera footage.

The important thing to remember is Deaf people aren't superhuman. A lot of us are DeafBlind or DeafDisabled. There are perks to knowing and using sign language, and there are perks to Deaf culture, but they're not superpowers.

Rest in peace Kaylee Hottle 🙏😔😢

Best known for playing Jia in the "Godzilla vs. Kong" and "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" films, tragically passed away following a car accident in Maryland at the age of 18. Her father, Joshua Hottle, announced the heartbreaking news, and her passing has been met with mourning by the Deaf community and fans worldwide.

Her authentic portrayal of a Deaf girl who communicated with Kong using American Sign Language (ASL) brought incredible representation to mainstream cinema. Her passing is a profound loss for both Hollywood and the communities she inspired.