Tom Willard in “How to Write Like a Hearing Reporter”

Deaf Culture Commentary

There is a whole Deaf world beyond the rickety bridges some in the hearing world have built to connect, yes, that is to connect but not to cross over. The vast majority in the hearing world appear to think that the existence of these rickety bridges shows enough effort on their part to prove that they see and care about the Deaf. The hearing turn their backs to the sturdy building tools amply available to allow them to reach the Deaf in a real way while pointing to the dilapidated state of their own false efforts as an excuse not to try. In Deaf World many Deaf people write that these efforts are not enough. They write for Deaf who they are sure will understand them and for the hearing who they hope will begin to understand them. They write to say that Deafness feels like an island because it is surrounded by a communication barrier, but that even if it be this island it has been made out to be, it is not the godforsaken island the hearing world assumes it is. They write to say that Deafness is a rich, thriving, multi-faceted culture worthy of more genuine recognition by all.

Tom Willard in “How to Write Like a Hearing Reporter” expresses his frustration with hearing world who seem to think that deafness as well as Deafness is completely defined by not being able to hear. In his “tongue-in-cheek” guide to hearing reporters writing about the Deaf he advises, “There are two words that must appear in every headline. One is ‘silence’ (or ‘silent’) ... The other word is ‘signs’” (Willard, 38). And it’s not the good kind of “signs” either. Both Willard and Jack Levesque warn that Deaf people are not like cute little children to be patronized or fawned over by the hearing world. Willard observes that while hearing reporters use last names when writing about hearing adults, “... when writing about deaf people, it is permissible to refer to them by their first name ... as if they were children” (Willard, 39). Leveque’s warning comes from a different angle.

In his article, “CBS Hurt Deaf Children with ‘Caitlin’s Story’” Levesque dismays CBS’ fawning celebration of Caitlin as the wonder child come fully loaded with the cochlear implant that would allow her to be “normal”. Levesque rebukes CBS for choosing a child whose life is currently “devoid of controversy and failure and rejection” as their poster project for reporting on the Deaf. (Levesque, 40). He warns that this child, like all deaf children will grow up to be a deaf adult who will hunger for self-recognition. Levesque, surely aware of the reality that ninety percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents, believes stories like the one no CBS might the dead-end road of making their deaf child hearing (Levesque, 41). What Levesque and others want these parents to know is that here is a different road for those children and it leads to a healthy, and thriving and self-affirming culture in the Deaf community. Elizabeth Broecker in her article, “Who Speaks for the Deaf Community? Not Who you Would Think!,” says that part of the problem may be that there are not enough Deaf people in the hearing world guiding these parents and others the sturdy path into the Deaf community.

Broecker writes that the pervasiveness of self-loathing, fear and passive acceptance of the status quo within the Deaf community plays a part in the hearing world’s misinterpretation of Deafness (Broecker, 46). Broecker attests that interpreters for the deaf provide the Deaf community’s strongest bridge into the hearing world and that there’s a problem with this. The bridge for the Deaf community into the hearing one should be proud Deaf people who have “the freedom of personal action to fight their own battles ... and individually and collectively realize they have the power to be” (Broecker, 46). Shanny Mow is the type of Deaf person for which Broecker hopes , but he as others also writes with frustration about his travels among the hearing.