Advice on including a hearing-impaired person in a story

C

cleverclawclaw

New Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2020
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Hello everyone. I'm writing an introductory Latin textbook that has an ongoing storyline. I'm thinking about introducing a character, a grandfather who has suffered some hearing loss. At least part of the reason is that this allows for repetition and change of person and tense (character a says "I am etc etc"; grandfather doesn't hear it; someone else has to repeat it by saying "He says 'he is etc'"). It also allows for potential misunderstandings that could make the story fun, which could be a good thing.

It strikes me, however, somethings could be offensive if I don't do this right.

So is there guidance that any of you would like to offer me on what to avoid? Or maybe I should avoid this all together?
 
Hello cleverclawclaw I feel your worry I am a wannabe author I would also like to include a Deaf character in my story, I am not a Deaf or Hard of Hearing person myself but I can try to give yourself some pointers:
1. make the character more than a Deaf person, this goes for most characters so just don't make a character have one defining trait, like maybe he could be an aspiring poet or an ex firefighter tldr make your Deaf character more than just his condition.
2. I think it would be a good idea to add some humor with your Deaf character, BUT NOT TOO MUCH! Also maybe you could make him funny on his own right like maybe he could crack a couple jokes once in a while
3. deaf vs Deaf, I took an ASL course a while ago and it mentioned that Deaf people prefer if you refer to them with a capital D, because it is a culture for example an American would get mad at you if you used a lowercase a
4. Do some research and find examples I have some books that I can reccommend that have Deaf characters that maybe you can get some ideas from, the two main ones that come to mind are the Magnus Chase series by Rick Rordian and Sidekicked by John David Anderson
Hope your story turns out great! :fingersx:
 
Hi Cleverclawclaw, first Happy New year 2022 and be safe, to he recont response is great they gave you great pointers and like the respondent stated do the research and talk to other Deaf mute persons to give you there spin on this. Well I wish you good luck on your book and hope it works out for you.
 
Well I am hard of hearing with a profound high frequency deafness all my life. Personally I take offense to your take in deaf speak...we use proper Eng!ish and are not language deficient. Most of my my total deaf encounters know proper English. ASL uses hands to speak so it does not follow all the spoken rules.
 
Back
Top