Writing Deaf Character Tips

I’ve seen a lot of fanfic writers ask for tips to write Deaf characters so I thought I would write some out to help make authentic. Also feel free to send ask for any questions!

Deaf characters exist on a spectrum- it’s rare to have no residual hearing.

Deaf characters can’t magically hear perfect with assistive devices. Hearing aids are in the name- an aid. They make it easier to pick up some sounds. They are also expensive and a lot of insurance won’t cover.

ASL- American Sign Language. Deaf characters raised by hearing family might not have access to ASL until later in life. Percentage of Deaf kids educated in fluent ASL is low.

ASL has own grammar and syntax totally different from English, But! It is okay to write ASL in spoken English grammar, especially if you don’t know ASL. We know what you mean!

Avoid Deaf and hearing characters signing and speaking long sentences at the same time. It’s called Sim-Com and ASL users who can do it are rare because sentence structures are totally different. It would be like trying to write a sentence in English at the exact same time (word for word) as someone speaks it in French. Sim-com usually used with SEE and still hard for fluent ASL Deaf to follow.

Deaf characters can be dizzy! Many many Deaf have tinnitus and vertigo. Comes with many hearing loss conditions. Vertigo can also be triggered by flashing lights, heavy bass sounds. (very annoying in the car when driving and someone has loud, shake your car bass)

Deaf characters can also can have balance problems from inner ear issues.

Deaf characters can enjoy music! Many ways to enjoy music besides hearing all of it.

Lip reading is hard. You need to start at the beginning of the conversation, need constant context, and when you lose the thread it’s hard to get back. Many many words look the same on lips that sound totally different. Avoid magic lipreading in characters.

Character doesn’t need to have a Deaf accent.

Deaf character doesn’t need to talk loud. Many Deaf talk very soft because they feel vibrations before the vibrations make audible noise.

Deaf characters can be very fluent in written English and great writers but still have very poor sentence skills when being casual in texting or conversation (like me!) Hard to go from ASL to English brain, and makes you tired.

Deaf characters can use ASL Slang! ASL has colloquial signs that have no direct English translation but we use all the time (peh peh, train go sorry, champ, etc etc) Here are some examples!

That’s all I have for now. Hope it helped!

Here have some Lloyd Headcanons

Also yes polyninja (Jay x Cole x Kai x Zane) is a thing in this and this specifically pre-movie Lloyd (so maybe I’m not a big fan of the new seasons the designs and lore change caught me off okay)

Even after all these years, he still has a mischievous streak and likes to occasionally catch the other ninja off guard and prank them (which he had gotten very good at thanks to Jay’s teaching)

People say he’s the leader of the ninja, the ninja say he’s the gremlin

Sometimes he can’t help but manically cackle when he laughs

Worst sleeper of the ninja, besides Jay. He’s a night owl and an early bird, so good luck trying to make him sleep more than 5 hours.

Electro pop, rock, My Chemical Romance and Marina and the Diamonds for days.

Gets very uncomfortable and awkward around his fans, especially the more…bolder ones.

You thought Cole had a sweet tooth? Wait until you meet him. The ninja are banned from half of Ninjago’s candy stores because of him.

On the ace-spectrum and either aromantic, demiromantic or panromantic

A good chunk of his clothes are hand-me-downs from the other ninja, some he just straight up stole without the other ninja knowing, the other half are from 3 AM emergency runs to the store for midnight snacks and he happened to find something that caught his interest

Because he’s a terrible sleeper, he can and will fall asleep anywhere if he’s not given anything to do. Leave him alone for more than 2 minutes? Boom, he’s running a free-death trial.

Sarcastic whenever the other ninja are fawning over each other.

*whenever one of the other ninja makes a joke that’s outdated* pfft. Millennials.

Skinny and gets cold very easily. You will find this boy in a sweatshirt in 80 degree weather.

Always carries a fidget cube with him wherever he goes (except on missions).

He has somewhat-fangs and will not hesitate to bite someone if needed (if they’re ever captured, the enemies first mistake was not gagging him).

Cat pupils

He likes cuddling (platonic obvs) with the other ninja and people have learned that if he falls asleep with you touching him somehow that he greatly trusts you and that you have been blessed.

He’s the shortest of the team around 5’ 4”

Because he’s the elemental master of energy his metabolism is extremely weird. Sometimes he’ll be able to eat twice as much as Cole does on the daily and gain no weight whatsoever, but other times he’ll have a few granola bars for a day and call it good.

Swears like a drunken sailor when none of the ninja are there to stop him

He can climb anything. He regularly goes out with Cole to mountain climb. Has no fear of heights whatsoever. One minute he’ll be on the ground the next he’s 50 feet above you.

Lloyd loves to ride in the shopping cart during late-night snack runs

His ears are a bit pointy

Sometimes he’ll put his hair up in a messy man-bun during training

Whatever you do, do not trust a word he says during April Fool’s Day

He likes getting spoiled but will never admit it

Sometimes he feels left out when the other ninja are cuddling but he doesn’t want to make it awkward for them and ask so he kind of just cuddles with a stuffed animal until they’re done

And yes he does have a stuffed animal he has multiple there’s a dark green snake, a brown ferret, a Mimikyu, an Eevee and they all have names

His favorite Eeveelution is either Umbreon or Slyveon he can’t decide.

He actually doesn’t wear green that much (it gets annoying and boring after wearing it constantly for missions) and when he does it’s either a dark forest green or a jade-camo color.

He likes the colors yellow and purple too

He loves lemon meringue and mint chip ice cream

Him using lipgloss and chapstick is a secret he’ll take to his grave

He smells faintly like a mix of evergreen, mint, vanilla and sugar.

Quotes John Mulaney (or whoever his Ninjago counterpart would be) on the daily and no one understands him and he suffers a little bit everytime time

He also quotes vines, which Kai and Jay will get so that makes the John-Mulaney quoting a bit more bearable

He loves stray cats. But birds are his enemy. Get birds away from him. Especially the white cockatoos with the crazy head feathers that puff out and scream.

He has plants he takes care off and gets very worried if he’s away for too long.

You do not want to see this man angry, and I mean actually angry, pissed off angry, he will instill the fear of God in you. He’ll go quiet, his eyes will turn red (they’re green when they’re not) and he’ll just stare at you. Then he’ll add you onto The List. Look, he isn’t evil, but if somehow he does turn evil…

Sometimes he’ll go to Hot Topic to treat himself

If the ninja want payback for some prank he pulled in them, all they have to do is mention is the bangs he had as a kid and he won’t mess with you for weeks.

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decaffeinatedpeacetragedy

3 years ago