I've always wanted to write a book relating my experiences growing up as a deaf child in Chicago. Contrary to what people might think, it wasn't all about hearing aids and speech classes or frustrations.
Deaf people can do anything, except hear.
You see, the deaf have an intimacy with silence. It’s there in their dreams.
There is no relation to sound for deaf people. It is a totally different mental process.
When I was 11, I knew that I wanted to write a kid's book and tell the world what it was like being deaf.
I don't know that hearing people have ever felt that experience of truly being left out. They have easy communication, while deaf people can't join in. It takes more time to communicate with us.
I'm not a deaf musician. I'm a musician who happens to be deaf.
I'm the only one in my family who is deaf, and there are still conversations that go around me that I miss out on. And I ask what's going on, and I have to ask to be included. But I'm not going to be sad about it. I don't live in sad isolation. It's just a situation I'm used to.
I was born deaf. Sound never existed in my life, and this is completely normal to me.
I searched YouTube for 'deaf music videos' and watched them with the sound muted. I noticed that though you could understand the words being signed, the sense of rhythm was lost. That's when I had the idea to create a video where you could see the sounds you couldn't hear.
Seriously, I don't find not being able to hear an obstacle or a boundary. For me, and for many of us, it is an advantage, and it's a part of my identity, in fact. It's a huge part of who I am.
I was born deaf. I was raised in a hearing world and in a deaf world at the same time. I can't say that I like one better than I like the other. I like them both. I speak pretty well; I gesture. If I don't understand something, you know, pen and paper, texting. I use it all.
To really understand a deaf person's experience, you need someone that is deaf to be able to tell you what their experience is.
We have our own culture, our own community. A lot of people don't realize that. They just assume that deaf people are very unfortunate, very disabled, but no.
Since I knew my deaf identity since birth, it wasn't hard for me to be comfortable, confident, and independent in a hearing world.
At Gallaudet, deafness isn't an issue. You don't even think about it. Students can pay attention to accounting or psychology or journalism. But when a deaf person goes to another college, no matter how supportive it is, that person doesn't get the same access.
I am fourth-generation deaf, which means everyone in my immediate family is deaf. So I grew up always having 100 percent accessibility to language and communication, which was wonderful and something so many deaf people don't have.
Something I am wondering: if you cannot hear do you have no sounds in your head? Do you see a silent movie
I am a visual person, given that I am deaf.
