#deafawareness

Your Deaf character does not have to lose their hearing in a horrificly traumatic way, like a car accident, explosion, etc.

Most Deaf people have lost their hearing due to genetic factors, infections, ear infections, medications, medication overdoses, head injuries, and birth complications. A lot of this happened early on in life.

Having your Deaf character be fluent in ASL for the sake of being fluent yet having no exposure to the Deaf community and no one to sign with or who taught them doesn't make sense.

Keep in mind that a Deaf person who lost their hearing later vs lost their hearing young will have differerent life experiences; Deaf experience varies greatly.

Finally, just because your Deaf character is Deaf, it doesn't mean their life is miserable, pointless, unfullfilling, depressing, and only traumatic.

Deaf people have a rich history, culture, language. Many Deaf people don't consider themselves disabled and often consider it a language barrier (though this varies from person to person).

When you write a Deaf character, please do research and not just make their life what you think the Deaf experience is. Don't make a Deaf character's life just miserable because you like writing traumatized characters.

you. are. so. RIGHT

thank you so much anon for this ask and i’m sorry i took so long to get to you!!! and kudos to you for telling us your story 🥹 this one’s for you 🧡🧡🧡

people might’ve said it was controversial, for lando to be holding eden instead of y/n, but they’d never realise it was y/n’s idea.

the doctor’s office was quiet - ironically. eden looked around, her tiny baby arms flailing in the ear as her curious eyes looked around the white room.

lando swore he almost cried when the doctor re-entered the room with that tiny hearing aid in her hands. he looked over to his wife, that signature grin plastered on his face.

“alright…” the doctor spoke, bending down to be eye level with the baby. after a minute or so of eden’s whinging because a random stranger lady was trying to put a piece of metal on her head, the doctor was finally able to connect it. “get ready.”

as soon as the aid was turned on, eden let out a cry. lando turned the little girl around to face him before saying his first words to his daughter.

“eden, daddy’s here.”

as soon as lando spoke, eden stopped. the whole room stopped. y/n held her breath, tears brimming her eyes. suddenly, eden let out a soft giggle, and the world seemed to stop. lando let out a laugh, tears finally spilling down his cheeks.

i learned french → norwegian → english → russian → english again (after my hearing got worse) → and now i’m learning asl. and let me tell you, learning any language when you can’t rely on your hearing is exhausting. you’re relying on subtitles, lip reading, interpreters—basically anything that might help you keep up in conversations you’re already shut out of. and lip reading? it’s not a superpower, it’s educated guesswork. a ton of words look the same on the lips. sometimes you’re basically reading context clues from vibes alone.

and the whole “just talk louder” crowd doesn’t get it—talking to people is draining. every conversation is a mental marathon. you’re tracking faces, piecing together fragments, filling in blanks, and trying not to get mocked when you miss something. people act like the only communication method worth learning is spoken language, yet the second they have to put in even a fraction of the work we’ve been doing our whole lives, they tap out.

newsflash: learning sign language isn’t impossible. it’s not even the hardest thing you’ll ever do. you just don’t want to. you’re comfortable in a world that caters to you, so you think effort is optional. but if we can bend over backwards to learn the language of a world that shuts us out, you can take the time to learn the language that lets us in.

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summary: In which a deaf girl meets an overly persistent boy at a convenience store.

type: one-shot, fluff

author’s note: this is my first one-shot! Hope u like it! ♡

~

You weren’t very sure why others disliked deaf people, you were just like them; but you couldn’t hear, you couldn’t communicate with your voice and, you had to use sign language.

‘It’s probably very confusing to them, and it takes a lot to learn sign language’ you thought as you looked at yourself in the mirror,

‘only because people like me can’t hear, others don’t need to treat us like we’re not different, because we are.’ you thought as you looked down, shrugging your shoulders as you started getting ready for school.

You walked slowly as you wandered through your school’s hallway, a little smile on your face, you knew it was weird to admit, but you liked being deaf,

to you, looking at the world in silence was the most beautiful thing you could ever experience, it was so peaceful, when the planet is on mute, even the saddest things could look fascinating.

But then, it was also so lonely, being deaf meant also being alone, people would distance themselves from you, thinking that they shouldn’t even bother— but you don’t blame them,

you had accepted the behavior people around you had, from the ones that ignored you, to the ones that bullied you— you didn’t even bother caring, what could you ever do about it? Speak up?

But all of it didn’t really affect you, you liked your quiet and calm life— until it wasn’t.

That afternoon, you found yourself at the convenience store, hood of your sweatshirt on, deciding if you should buy the normal ramyeon, or the spicy one,

‘This is a tough decision…’ you furrowed your eyebrows before shrugging your shoulders and taking both of them,

then you walked to the drink’s aisle, deciding on a drink to buy, ‘maybe a fruity drink is better than a coca-cola’ you thought as you bit your lower lip, you surely were taking your time.

Gotak groaned softly, “How long is he going to take??” He whispered softly, looking at the person in front of him, who was standing in front of the drink’s aisle for too long now,

“All I know is that I want my strawberry milk” Baku whispered as he stood next to him, huffing lightly,

after noticing that they had been staring at this person’s back for way too long, Baku spoke up,

“Dude, can you please hurry? We don’t have all day” he raised his voice just enough to be heard but—

No answer.

“Yah— are you straight-up ignoring us?” Gotak groaned again, getting a little bit frustrated, just enough to take this person by the shoulder and turning them around.

You gasped as you suddenly got grabbed by the shoulder and turned around, your eyes widening as you noticed these two guys, who looked like they were around your age, staring up and down at you.

Baku and Gotak’s eyes widened a little bit, not expecting a girl, they gulped, but Gotak still spoke up.

‘We’ve been waiting for like 4 minutes’ you managed to understand that through lip reading,

When you realized that you had been lost in your thoughts for too long, your cheeks got red from the embarrassment and you bowed before running to the counter, not even grabbing the drink.

It happened to you way too often— losing yourself in your own mute world, and evertime it interfered in someone else’s life, it was so embarrassing.

Gotak looked at her as she ran to the counter, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion before letting it go, “Whatever, let’s get this strawberry milk—“,

he stopped in his tracks as he noticed Baku’s eyes follow the girl’s movements, he looked in awe, “Dude, really?” he deadpanned,

“Oh my god Gotak— she’s so beautiful!” He whispered loudly as he placed his hands on Gotak and started shaking him,

“You literally saw her face for like 3 seconds!” Gotak groaned, looking at his friend like he just said the stupidest thing in the world,

“Baku always recognizes a pretty face!” He grinned widely, Gotak’s eye twitched, “Why are you talking in third person now—“ he couldn’t even finish before Baku interrupted him,

“Oh no! She’s getting out! I have to get her number bro!” and after that— Baku was immediately out of the convenience store, leaving Gotak standing there annoyed, but not surprised,

“What about your fucking strawberry milk??” He groaned.

You walked out of the store, still a little embarrassed, ‘I have to stop doing that’, you thought to yourself, but then, you got grabbed by the shoulder again, making you turn around,

it was the guy from before, the other one wasn’t with him— he started gesturing and talking really fast, you couldn’t even read his lips,

you thought he was scolding you again for making them wait too long, you didn’t want any trouble so you bowed again before running away.

“Hey wait—!” Baku called after her, he whined in frustration, “I can’t be that ugly right…” he looked away,

“Let me guess” Gotak appeared from behind him, two strawberry milk bottles in his hand, “You got turned down again” he said with a smirk, ready to make fun of him,

“She didn’t even say anything she just— ran away…” Baku said with a defeated look,

Gotak burst out laughing, “I can’t believe you got rejected like that!!” He laughed mockingly, “Shut up!” Baku whined.

Days after, you were at the convenience store again, wanting to get some ice cream, you walked to the freezer, placing your hand on the handle to open it,

but your hand bumped with another one who was about to do the same thing,

you turned around, ready to apologize, but your eyes widened as you realized it was the guy who stopped you in front if the store some days ago!

Baku’s eyes widened, “Hey! You again!” his smile widened, happy to see her again, even though last time was pretty embarrassing for him.

You immediately bowed, cheeks red as you got ready to run away again, but he grabbed your arm, “Please! I promise I don’t bite!” He smiled widely,

you managed to read his lips, calming down a little bit, but still very embarrassed, you looked around awkwardly, then you looked up at him,

when he noticed that you had calmed down, he spoke up, “What are you getting?” He beamed softly, you read his lips again,

honestly— he looked like a beaten up puppy, he was cute too, and he genuinely looked like he didn’t mean anything bad,

you grabbed the ice cream you wanted and pointed it at him, alternating your gaze from the floor to his face,

he smiled widely, ready to speak up again— but he talked too fast, you weren’t able to read his lips, so you just didn’t say anything,

he furrowed his eyebrows, tilting his head to the side as he noticed your confusion, “Cat’s got your tongue?” He joked softly,

you were able to understand that, you looked down, then looked up at him and then back down again, sighing softly,

you grabbed your little notebook you had in your pocket, grabbing a pen from the other one, then writing something down—

‘here goes nothing’ you thought before raising your notebook to him.

Baku’s eyes slightly widened, he read the two words written on the notebook:

I’m deaf

Baku was surprised, and immediately embarrassed for not realizing it that day when he straddled her on the street,

but then,

he couldn’t help it when a smile appeared on his face, ‘That means I still have a chance!’ he thought to himself, then softned immediately ‘I scared her that day…’.

You immediately looked up at him when he grabbed your notebook and pen, expecting any kind of insult, he wrote something down and then he lifted up the notebook for you to read:

That’s lit! I never met a deaf person!

Your eyes widened softly, not expecting a reaction like this, you looked up at him, he had a big smile on his face,

then he wrote something again, your eyes following his movements, then he showed it to you:

Can I have you’re number? Let’s be friends!

You looked back at him, your eyes widening even more, you weren’t used to this kind if interactions, it warmed up your heart.

You grabbed the notebook, writing down something, noticing him shuffle a little bit closer, curious to see what you were writing, when you finished, you lifted the notebook:

It’s *your, and okay

He smiled even more when he read what it was written, he laughed, shaking his head, his cheeks a little bit warm.

You smiled softly.

That afternoon you and Baku shared your phone numbers, he saved himself as ‘Baku the great!🏀’ on your phone, you saved yourself ‘Y/n’ on his, but he insisted and added a drink can emoji to it, making you a little bit embarrassed meanwhile he laughed about it,

and for the first time— someone saw you, but not for being different.