Language Barrier? I Don't Even Know 'er!

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!

highschoolau

I feel like Bruce Wayne projects the kind of amiable playboy 'fun' vibe that he'd be the type of celebrity that certain interviewers feel comfortable surprising with puppies.

You know the kind of shows I mean.

The late-night talk show situations where they're making benign small talk with their smiling guest, and there's a segment where animals get brought out, usually to talk about some sort of ecological relief effort.

So you're watching your trash TV talk show late at night, and you get to watch billionaire pretty boy Bruce Wayne be begrudgingly talked into holding a (relatively) harmless creature which inevitably gets a lot of delighted shrieks from the audience as it starts being a lot more active than the handler promised. And to his credit, Bruce doesn't flinch, he doesn't freak out. But his eyes are a little wide, and his voice a little tight as the smile on his face takes on a slight rictus quality before he's inevitably rescued by an apologetic handler who is also laughing because they all know there was no real danger, it was just funny to put Bruce, who is an undeniable good sport and already laughing along, out of his comfort zone for the sake of charity.

Meanwhile, up in the Justice League headquarters, several founding members of the League are wondering how fast they can get a fake Oscar award shipped to the space station because fuck off. Absolutely fuck off, Bruce. Where the fuck did he study? Juilliard? (Probably.)

(Clark ends up going to a novelty store during the commercial break. It's faster than trying to get anything shipped, even with the infrastructure Bats built for them. He finds it several days later taped to his console in a conspicuously empty briefing room. It's gaudy and awful, the words "Best Actor" engraved on the plaque. No one's around to see him smile. No one comments when it vanishes. Everyone thinks it's been yeeted out an airlock. Dick absolutely comments when it shows up in the manor, stashed in one of the trophy cases that sprung up for all the bat kids' school awards. Bruce has no idea how it got there. Must have been Alfred. (It was not.))

Anyway, consider, for your amusement, Bruce Wayne getting highjacked on The Gotham Toight Show with a handful of wriggling puppies and, for a split second, not having to pretend he's delighted to be there.

reblog the money pigeon for a financially stable future

Puki will you leave tumblr because everyone’s acting like it’s dead now :(

oh yeah its SO dead.

1000 notes this post. Now

If you can’t reblog this, unfollow me now.

Reblog if you're LGBT and are against MAPS/Child Groomers

Vengeance is Never a Good Idea- For Hattafan2593

I’m not exactly happy with this but I think this is the best I can do. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this even if it’s not my best. To Hattafan2593, I’m really sorry for this taking so long but also if it isn’t what you hoped. Hopefully it isn’t too bad but it gave me quite a bit of trouble. Never the less, thanks sending in a request. 

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Alya shook as she saw herself destroying Marinette’s sketchpad on video. She had just been trying to avenge Lila as Marinette had stolen her designs and Lila had been so upset by it. She had been in tears and Alya knew that she couldn’t let Marinette get away with stealing her designs. She thought Marinette would know better but apparently not. However, she had no idea that Lila had followed her in secret and filmed her. She had no idea that Lila would actually send the video to the group chat and claim that she had been shocked to see Alya do such a thing. She had no idea that she had outlived her usefulness to Lila. For the last few weeks, Alya had been acting more and more unhinged. She was constantly snapping at everyone and anyone because her blog was no longer popular. People had caught on that it was no longer the most useful blog about Ladybug and that it was basically tabloid trash, devoted to either fake interviews or trying to convince everyone that Ladynoir was the one true ship and that they were actually dating. Even someone as blind and dumb as Sabrina could see that Ladybug was dating the new Fox hero, not Chat Noir but Alya refused to admit she was wrong. It didn’t help that a new blog had turned up. As far as Alya was concerned, this new blog was stealing her views and likes. It didn’t occur to her that her viewers had gotten tired with her blog and she even blamed Marinette for it. She was convinced that Marinette was the owner of the blog. She wasn’t. Alya blinked as the messages began to come through, knocking her out of her thoughts.

Radbitsk8r: What the actual hell?! @Foxwivwifi why did you destroy Marinette’s work?!

Foxwivwifi: Because she deserved it! Lila was upset about Marinette stealing her designs! Right, @modelqueen?!

ModelQueen: I was upset that someone might have stolen them. I never said she actually had. I can’t believe you actually destroy her work!

Alya frowned at Lila’s response. She was sure Lila had claimed that Marinette had in fact stolen her designs but could it be she misheard her? No! She was certain that she had said Marinette had stolen her designs.

FoxwivWifi: No! You said you had seen her taking your designs!

ModelQueen: No, I said that I suspected that someone had taken my designs and that I happened to see Marinette near my locker! That is not the same as saying she stole from me!

Bubbleboy: Alya, that is not cool. I can understand taking a look at her sketchpad to see if she had taken Lila’s design but you can’t just destroy Marinette’s things. That is a crime and you have no real solid proof.

FoxwivWifi: But Lila said she had! I was just trying to avenge her!

ModelQueen: No, I didn’t!!

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Usseewa cover…with all might :0D