We don’t have a current ScriptFam blog like that, so my best suggestion for specific questions is to maybe try finding communities of Deaf people online and/or ask in a thread over in the Reference Desk forum on NaNoWriMo’s website (though you’ll need a NaNo account for that, keep in mind). You may also want to check out any tags on places like Twitter and Tumblr for things like Deaf Culture, ASL, etc.I have been told or learned over the years some things you may want to keep in mind while doing your research though - particularly these three things:- In written English at least, there is a difference in meaning between “deaf” and “Deaf”; “deaf” might just refer to the disability itself, whereas “Deaf”, with a capital D, refers to someone part of the Deaf culture, which is something quite different, though I would ask someone from within that culture who identifies as such, for the exact definition or distinctions between the two, as I’m not part of that culture and don’t want to give you wrong information. I just know it’s a thing and I’ve seen people corrected on it before, so keep it in mind!- Places like the USA that have lots of regions and some form of Sign Language spoken in their borders, may have lots of different subcultures within their Deaf culture, which have for example, regional variants in Sign Language dialect (these variants can make HUGE differences in translation for specific words, particularly slang, trust me. Especially with any sign near the mouth in ASL dialects...). - Not every country necessarily has a Deaf culture though; I’ve been told by a friend of mine whose family is Haitian for instance, that there doesn’t seem to be one in Haiti because of severe ableism there, where most people treat deaf people like they’re intellectually inferior just because they can’t hear, and don’t really try to communicate with people who can’t hear, thus isolating them and not giving them a social network or very many ways of communicating. In contrast, cultures which have developed or adopted at least one Sign Language (NOT just the West; I know China for instance has its own Sign Language...?) seem, from what I’ve heard, to tend to develop a Deaf culture of some sort. (My friend, who was losing her hearing in one ear as it was, was...not happy about this element of Haitian culture, as you can imagine, and was happy to have been born in the USA if only for that reason)These elements combine to make it VERY important that you distinguish exactly what you mean when you talk about writing a character who is “deaf”; namely, do you just mean: “what’s it like not to be able to hear sound?”, or, do you mean: “what is it socially etc like, to be Deaf and speak Sign Language and be a part of that culture?” And, which Deaf culture would you be needing information on, is an important factor, because there’s probably some important differences in regional Deaf culture just with in the USA, or UK, or France (all of which have their own Sign Languages), let alone between Europe’s and America’s Deaf cultures, and any Deaf culture that may be found in places like China. For instance, you will probably find a lot of little differences even just in the US between people who speak ASL (American Sign Language), who are usually born in Deaf families, and people who become deaf later in life and may learn something called PSE (Pidgin Signed English), as mentioned here (you don’t have to watch this video with sound btw; she has it automatically captioned): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp4-m8Ih6QQtldr: From what I know, there’s a difference between just not being able to hear, and being Deaf, and what it’s like to be either deaf or Deaf is additionally very different depending on the surrounding culture you have to or can choose to live in, and you will want to specify that VERY carefully when doing your research on this/these character(s)!
Some additional things I learned or noticed from speaking to a handful of Deaf people over the years, that you might find useful for some perspective or inspiration in your writing:- In ASL, at least, it’s not unheard of for some Signs to be a little too close to a lot of contextually uh, awkward ones, which makes sometimes for some amusing misunderstandings and mistranslations, particularly when the person using it isn’t fluent yet. Can I provide at least one hilarious example? ABSOLUTELY: my friend mentioned above was trying to learn how to Sign “Fireflies” by Owl City, and was talking to a Deaf woman, and mentioned that, and... it was only after the woman burst out laughing and said “Sounds fun!!”, that said friend realized she had failed to fully close her hand movement on the word for “bug” (which is a component of the ASL for “firefly”), and uh...accidentally renamed the song to “Fiery Orgasm”, apparently. (Seriously, I’m not kidding. Just ask ASL speakers about the difference between “hungry” and “horny”, either, and you’ll realize there’s some hilariously appropriate wordplay opportunities in translating the song “Hungry Like The Wolf”...)- Skype and other video chat formats are popular with Deaf people in modern settings, for the obvious reason that it gives them the option to converse in their native languages. (This was something that was and still is a concern in Net Neutrality debates, actually, since having access to services like that allows many Deaf people to have normal conversations with other Deaf people even when separated geographically, so losing that access could socially isolate a lot of Deaf people)- Thinking that one can’t possibly function very well without being able to hear sound, or just overlooking obvious solutions to that, or just never considering it as a possibility etc, is something I’ve heard referred to as “audism” or “audist bias” (NOT to be confused with “autism”, which is a neurodivergence, of course; “audism” comes from the same root word as “auditory”). Audist bias is a form of ableism, and comes into play when people for example, can’t imagine how people would get each other’s attention if the other can’t hear them (to which the Deaf response I heard was the amusingly blunt: “try stomping the floor”), or just...fail to recognize or recall that deaf or Deaf people exist and assume automatically that people can hear (sadly, this has happened with police before in the USA, and resulted in sometimes-fatal misunderstandings, e.g. when a man tried to approach closer in order to read the cops’ lips, and was shot because he could not tell what he was being told and the cops failed to consider he couldn’t hear them, and it didn’t even occur to them for some reason that the gestures he was making were Sign Language >_>); or, even it’s there when we folks who aren’t Deaf, just assume that there’s things that Deaf people have no access to or experience with, when they do (music, for an obvious example). Audist bias is something you will want to ask around a little about, trust me.- One major aspect of audist bias type ableism you might need to keep in mind depending on the needs of your story? Communication-related stuff. People might not realize your character can read lips (which is a common skill many Deaf people pick up out of necessity) and talk a little too freely in front of them for example; or they might conversely assume they can read lips when they can’t (and blame them for not having a skill that most people frankly don’t have); or, they might assume the person speaks a form of Sign Language that they don’t, or that they’re more fluent than they are (many people who become deaf later in life aren’t as fluent, or may not speak a Sign Language at all, because it’s still a language and language acquisition as an adult is more difficult and takes longer); and if they do rely on Sign Language, their communication might become hindered - sometimes intentionally, sometimes not - if they don’t have one or both hands free (for instance, if they’re handcuffed, they cannot easily form most Signs). If you’re not Deaf, you WILL have some audist biases, and you will have to accept that fact and work from the understanding that you will have this bias whether you intended to or not. It doesn’t make you a bad person or anything; it just reflects the fact that being Deaf isn’t part of your experience, and that because of that, there’s things you’ve never considered from the correct angles before. When you do this research, absolutely keep this mind, it’ll save you a lot of confusion, frustration, and mistakes, trust me! :) Also, I don’t know if this will be remotely helpful for your story but I love that it’s a thing and it’s part of Deaf culture, so here you go:There’s a whole genre of performance and translation, Sign Language translation of songs, that is frankly a lot of fun to watch when done well (which is hard to do!), since it combines a (time-constricted) poetic translation, with acting and dance. For example, I can’t vouch for the fluency of the translation since I’m not an ASL speaker, but this ASL translation I found recently of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a delight to watch (especially with the “gloss” for the translation turned on!) even if you don’t speak a lick of ASL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjln9OMOw-0I will tag this post with some relevant tags right at the front end, ‘Nonny; keep an eye on any of the reblogs in case Deaf people respond with any corrections, addenda, etc! :)
