Sadly, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke that AG Bell (as we tend to call the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) decided to diminish the achievements of Nyle DiMarco by essentially saying they needed to “dispel the myths about deafness.” In reading their article, I felt sick. I felt…
Tag: deaf
![[Image description: Children in a classroom, hunkered over books. Two boys read in front. Behind, at other desks are a girl and another boy. All appear to be persons of color.]](https://www.munkymind.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/soar-1024x768.jpg)
Author’s note: Despite the title, I am fully aware that we have many hearing educators that are allies of the Deaf Community that understand us and support us in ways that honor the message I am trying to share below. I apologize if the title is off-putting for those of you who already have joined…
I had a dream once, an actual dream, where I died and went to Heaven and they made me hearing again. I was angry in this dream and demanded my deafness back, because it was a part of who I am. Not the entirety of my Self, but a part that may be more integral…
1991. At 16 years old, I finally got my Driver License. I say “finally” because I had spent most of my 15th year daily polishing my 1971 Volkswagen Beetle with Turtle Wax. Daily is not an exaggeration: that car SHONE like a white hot sun. I bought the Bug, which I named Herbia because it…
[checks out the price on the cashier’s screen] [fishes in wallet for debit card] [thinks where is that card, oh crap did I lose it, oh there it is] [looks up and notices cashier and bagger looking at him like he’s being rude.] “Is plastic okay?” asks the bagger, tersely. “Ah, yes. Thanks.” The world…
Hi. It’s me, the deaf person you just met. We’re out, right now, at a deaf social event. You’re an aspiring interpreter, dreaming about the day you feel confident enough to go out there and interpret for a living. You’ve got passion, fire in your belly, a yearning desire to be in a field where…
The other day I was asked by a father who cares very much about his daughter how he could help her deal with the struggles of communicating with hearing people during everyday activities. As he put it, he is concerned about her “transition into adulthood” without his being there to help. As a father of…
At some point in time, whether it has already happened, or it will happen one day, you decide to be an ASL interpreter (or if you’re in another country, whatever your country’s signed language is) and you hopefully feel a spark of excitement. Perhaps you are a CODA, a child of Deaf adult(s), and the…
It almost seems dangerous to say that I love music, because not everyone will understand and I will be judged. While the majority of the Deaf Community will say they don’t enjoy music at all, there are plenty of us that do love music. Even when we cannot hear it. From hearing people who have…