Deaf Character - Blog Posts

As a Deaf person, I appreciate this person’s want to offer some form of representation of the Deaf community despite them being hearing themself. However, I don’t believe it’s correct to do so without having the most basic knowledge on the language we use to communicate. It’s easy to know when the author doesn’t know anything about the culture they’re trying to write. Like OP mentioned, it’s not to be fluent in sign language, but it’d be nice to actually delve into your character enough that you learn a little bit. Otherwise, this lack of investment makes the Deaf reader feel very used and/or like you didn’t really bother getting to know us as a community to begin with — a feeling we know all too well. We’re so much more than what people think, I guarantee you’ll be surprised.

Something I think could be helpful is to ask yourself why you want to write a Deaf character?

Anyway, I wish you and anyone else who wants to write Deaf characters well.

I have a question, if it's not too much of a bother. I'm a hearing writer who describes tones and voices more than anything, maybe. I have a character who is deafened near the end of my story and learns sign language to communicate. I've read posts saying that instead of describing a loud voice, for example, I should talk about exaggerated movements in sign. Now, I don't understand sign (the particular character learns BSL). How do I do the description anyway? Thanks, Luna 💛

Hi! I answered this ages ago but Tumblr is a piece of shit and didn’t upload the answer (•ˋ _ ˊ•) But anyhow, take two: 

Don’t worry about the description until you’re ready to edit your manuscript over with a fine tooth comb, or you’ll never get anything written. Being a hearing writer, you’ll be used to sounds, and that’s okay! I’ll come back to the actual craft in a moment, but before I do, your ask has a few points in that I’d like to address. 

Firstly, make sure you understand at least some sign. I’m not saying that you need to learn to speak the language fluently or anything, but it would be awesome if you could do some research into the basics such as grammar and facial punctuation. Once you’ve got those straight in your head, it ought to be easier to describe the signed dialogue in a more natural way. 

Secondly, I highly doubt your character is 100% Deaf. That is incredibly rare. It’s more likely that your character will have a limited amount of residual hearing–ie, they can hear noises that are low-pitched and high-volume, but the sound is “murky” or unclear. So while some background sounds could filter through to them, others wouldn’t even register. Whether they can hear human speech or not depends on the levels of hearing loss. (I talk a bit about the levels of Deafness in this post; you should do some further research yourself)

As for the craft itself, here’s the method I use for editing: 

Find all of the instances where you’ve described a sound and highlight them (either by hand or with something like Word’s highlighter tool)

You could also use the Find or Search tool to hunt down any sound descriptors by searching for hearing buzzwords like heard, sound, loud, quiet, noise etc

Some of these descriptions won’t even be necessary, which is a normal part of editing whether you’re writing a Deaf character or not

But once you’ve found the necessary descriptors, see if there is something that they can be replaced with

For example, instead of “The leaves on the trees whispered in the wind” you could write about the source of the sound: “She could see the tree branches shiver in the rising wind out of the corner of her eye.” 

Or maybe focus on another sense–there are four left, after all!

Sight, taste, smell and touch will all be compensating for the lack of sound. Use them. 

It’ll take some re-training, but you’ll get there eventually. Practise and experimenting is key

And for dialogue, here is a list of what you’ll want to be taking note of: 

facial expressions

body language

proxemics (ie, does one character move nearer to the other or away?) 

tics or non-sign actions (fiddling with clothes, tugging hair, shifting weight from foot to foot etc)

Hope this helps!

HAPPY NATIONAL FOREIGN LANGUAGE WEEK

top to bottom: Theo Dimas (James Caverly), and my husband Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane). They both speak ASL and AUGHDS I love them both sm Theo I NEED your dad. Yes Teddy is pretty ass at ASL but we (WE) love him still. They could NEVER make me hate him🙏🙏

Interference

Summary: A very busy café is the beginning of a new friendship. And maybe the start of a scientific break through.

Pairings: Clint Barton & Bucky Barnes

Word Count: 1317

Rating: General Audiences

Tags: College AU, Coffeeshop AU, meet-cute, Deaf Clint, Amputee Bucky, Trans Clint, NB Bucky

Written for:

@flufftober : Have your characters share the last table at a café (Extra)

Fall Traditions

Summary: Kate and Yelena have invited their friends to go on a day-trip with them. Clint doesn't quite understand how a mace made out of corn is supposed to work.

Pairings: HawkDevil (Clint Barton x Matt Murdock), Bisholova (Kate Bishop x Yelena Belova (QPR))

Word Count: 830

Rating: General Audiences

Tags: Corn Maze, Hedge Maze, Clint Barton has ADHD, Clint Dyslexic Clint Barton, Misunderstandings, AU - No Powers

Written for:

@flufftober : Day 6 - Corn Maze

@marvelrarepairbingo : N4 - Hedge Maze

To see the Bruises

Summary: Clint Barton, Agent of SHIELD is sent on a very simple mission: Find the Black Widow, make sure she doesn't blow anything up and take her out.

But what actually happened is a totally different story.

Chapter 1: Love at first sight

Pairing: Clintasha (Clint Barton x Natasha Romanov)

Word Count: 1718

Rating: Mature

Tags: Soulmates, Deaf Clint, Trans Clint, Budapest

Written for:

@mcukinkbingo : Soul Mates AU

@multifandom-flash : Black Widow / Love at first punch

@julybreakbingo (post Bingo) : First Meetings

Once again asking, because all of these are really interesting, and i loved your fics! I'm really interested in 'Blind Hawkeye and Deaf Daredevil' 👀

Okay, I can't say too much about that one, because it's part of something else.

But it's pretty much what it says on the tin.

This is a universe something between Comic and MCU canon, Matt and Clint are Vigilantes and work with each other and the other Heroes.

They know each others identities, Matt knows Clint is Deaf and Clint knows Matt's blind. Everything pretty standard until there.

But that's where I'll just let two snippets speak for themselves:

Matt's POV:

When Matt woke up and opened his eyes, the morning sun was shining right into his face and blinding him. He squeezed his eyes shut again and threw an arm over his face with a groan. He lay motionless, cursing the morning light, before noticing something was wrong. It took him a moment to realise that he was not supposed to be able to even see the light, much less his bedroom or the city outside. Slowly, he pulled his arm away and gave himself a moment to adjust to the unfamiliar sensation of light shimmering through his closed eyelids. After a few seconds, he turned away from the window before he dared to open his eyes again. When he did, his brain couldn’t quite translate the new signals yet, and everything just looked like blotches of light and dark and different colours. Matt blinked a few times, trying to get his eyes used to the brightness and focus on his surroundings. Very slowly, things started to make more sense. Blotches turned into shapes, and shadows turned into depth. After a while, Matt was able to recognise his surroundings, even though everything was still a little blurry. Still distracted Matt decided to get up and make some coffee to try to fully wake up before he called anyone. Maybe everything would make a little more sense then. He sat up in bed, pushed the covers off him, and swung his legs out of the bed with a soft thump when his feet hit the ground. Except there was no thump.

Clint's POV:

On the other side of the East River, in Bed-Stuy, a car horn pulled Clint from deep sleep. He jumped internally and opened his eyes at once. When he was greeted with pure darkness instead of the familiar sight of his bedroom ceiling, he started to panic. The car outside honked again, and a few seconds later, people started to shout. Overwhelmed by the noise, Clint grabbed at his ears and tried to rip his hearing aids out. The panic threatened to suffocate him again when he found nothing. The blonde turned and tried to drown out the sounds with his pillow, but it only muffled them and added the rustling of fabric and filling to the mix. Clint began to hyperventilate as memories of the circus, of fights that were loud enough for him to hear even without aids, and of people yelling at him for not understanding them combined with the strange mix of auditory overload and a complete lack of visual signals.  Quickly, he spiralled.

From there, a lot of questions have to be answered and problems to be solved and Clint and Matt both have to face a whole new challenge.

But like I said, I don't want to give away too much just yet.

Thank you so much for asking again (and feel free to ask for as many more as you like)

Sound and Color - Masterlist

Sound and Color

The sound and the colors of Leaves : 2467 / General Audiences / Matt and Clint bond over their mutual love for fall and leaves and their disabilities

The sound and the colors of Snow : 3959 / General Audiences / Matt helps Clint get the support he needs and they take a walk through wintery NYC

The sound and colors of Flowers : 2531 / General Audiences / Matt and Clint are working together as the city warms up.

The sound and colors of Sunshine : 3570 / General Audiences / Matt and Clint suffer in the heat and talk about Family.