A Deaf Writer with Hearing Characters

Recently, I came across a call for submissions for an anthology. They wanted sf/f stories from writers who have disabilities. Since I am deaf, and I had a sci-fi story I was trying to find a home for, I submitted my story. I figured I met their requirements in just being a writer with a disability; they didn’t say anything about how the stories submitted should contain characters with disabilities. My story didn’t; there were no deaf characters and there were also no other characters with disabilities.

 

Still, the whole thing made me think. I have been deaf since age 13, and by the time I became deaf, I was already writing stories, poems, and articles. Becoming deaf didn’t change how I wrote my stories; I did not start writing stories with deaf characters in them. I have, however, come up with novel ideas with deaf characters, but I haven’t written those novels yet. (I’ll get around to them, at some point!)

 

But even so, I didn’t write stories with deaf characters. Then I wrote a children’s story with a deaf character, who is the main character in the story. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any luck placing it with a publisher, and these days I can say that I am glad for that! It needs a lot of work. I actually plan to revise it at some point in the near future and try to find an agent for it. (Right now, I have to finish writing my middle-grade series!)

 

As far as writing anything deaf-related is concerned, that happened in my poetry and in my nonfiction writing. I have written a lot of deaf poetry (with only two published so far and I have a collection of deaf poetry I plan to get out there at some point), as well as a lot of essays on subjects related to being deaf. I wrote articles on deafness, and I also wrote for a newspaper called SIGNews, which was a national newspaper for the Deaf/HOH community. I wrote about Deaf education and Deaf parenting for that paper, but I eventually branched out to cover other topics.

 

And as a ghostwriter, I have been sought by other writers who are deaf who want me to write for them mainly because I am deaf.

 

And, of course, I wrote essays about my experiences as a deaf parent in the book, Parenting Pauses.

 

But as far as my fiction is concerned? Well, there are not many deaf characters. I do plan to introduce a deaf character in The GHOST Group (in Book 9), but we are not there yet. In one of my novels, my character learns sign language so she can communicate with a deaf barista, but that deaf character never makes an appearance.

 

This tendency to not include deaf characters in my fiction very often has always baffled me. Writers of fiction are told to write what we know, and if there’s one thing that I do know, it’s what it’s like to be deaf! (This is a common question I receive.) So why haven’t I included deaf characters in my fiction? I mean, aside from the children’s book I wrote, there really aren’t any. Why haven’t I included deaf characters who go through the same struggles I have as a deaf person – the discrimination, hostility, ignorance and feeling left out? I write about this in my deaf poetry, but not my deaf fiction. And I really wonder why I haven’t done that yet.

 

Part of me thinks that maybe the reason why is because writing fiction is like a form of escape for me. One thing I know very well as a deaf person is the communication barrier that exists between me and the hearing world. There are so many things I chose not to do simply because of that barrier. For example, I can’t participate in group discussions, because I can’t keep up with the conversation when there are multiple people talking and EVERYBODY is talking fast and nobody wants to slow down to sign to the deaf girl what everyone is saying. But when I write fiction, I can be a part of those things. I can “talk” with people on the phone through my characters, shout things to someone in another room and hear their response through my characters, and have an ongoing back-and-forth conversation that is not slowed down for signing through my characters.

 

I know this kind of discrimination exists in the hearing world. One guy I was interested in a long time ago said he likes to walk and talk and he prefers not to be with someone who can’t hear and keep up with the conversation. I was told I could not have a job at this one agency because I couldn’t answer the phone. I have sat through MANY appointments and meetings where everyone is talking but I don’t understand a single thing said because there are no aids to help me understand them.

 

I know all of these things, and more, as a person who is deaf. As someone who has been deaf for a long time.

 

I think as much as I like to escape from those limitations in my world by writing about a world where those problems aren’t there is nice, but I really think I should start putting in more effort where I have deaf characters going through those experiences just so more people can understand what life is REALLY like for a person who is deaf. There are struggles, yes, but we find a way around them and we adapt our lives to live with them. We can’t communicate on the phone like everyone else, but we CAN still communicate on the phone. We can’t order at a drive-thru like everyone else, but we CAN still order at a drive-thru, thanks to certain businesses who are aware of customers with disabilities who want the same access to fast food that everybody else has.

 

Life is different for people who are deaf, but we find a way to make things work. After I bring my deaf character into my series and after I get that children’s book published (fingers crossed I find an agent for it!), perhaps then I will finally start to include more deaf characters in my fiction. I think that really needs to happen.