Helen Keller’s birthday and Deafblind Awareness Week mark the perfect time to follow more Deafblind influencers. Here are some I follow, and if you know more tag them in the comments.
- Catarina Rivera @BlindishLatina
- Dr. Jasmine Simmons @DrJasmineSimmons
- Loni Friedman @L.Friedmann
- Rebecca Alexander @RebeccaAlexander
- Molly Watt @MollyWattTalks
- Ashlea Brittney Hayes @AshleaBrittney
- Elsa Sjunneson @snarkbat
Descriptive Transcript
Wearing a soft, stylized floral necklace over a blue dress, Haben speaks to the camera. Behind her is a textured wood wall.
Haben: It’s DeafBlind Awareness Week, and Helen Keller’s birthday is June 27th.
Photo: 24-year-old Helen holds a rose to her face while her other hand rests on an open Braille book. Her eyes are closed, her hair is pulled back into a low bun, and she’s wearing a white blouse with a bow at the front of her throat.
Haben: So we use this week to increase awareness. Helen lived from 1880 to 1968. And what I find fascinating is that many of the questions she received during her lifetime: “Why do you travel if you can’t see? How do you have a voice when you can’t hear?” Those questions are still being asked today. And part of that is because we still have an ocular-centric culture. We still need to move away from only imagining a world with sight, to imagining and designing a multisensory world. Helen loved traveling and speaking. She visited so many countries!
Photo: Sitting in a boat, Helen Keller stretches out a hand to a swan. It’s beak is near her fingers.
Haben: Helen had a powerful voice. She lost her hearing very early on as a kid, and as she was growing up, she noticed that only people who were speaking with audible voices were being heard and respected. So she spent thousands of hours learning how to speak with a voice that people could hear. That was exhausting. And a lot of deaf kids and parents have to grapple with the question of: Do we put people through thousands of hours of speech training or do we use those hours for mathematics, geography, and other classes that nondisabled students are taking? That’s a huge question, and I wish we did not have to grapple with that. I wish we had a culture where all voices were valued. Everyone has a voice. But because of ableism, racism, sexism and other forms of systemic oppression, a lot of voices are not heard.
Photo: 34-year-old Helen listens through her hand as Annie fingerspells. Annie stands beside Helen as she signs into her hand, while Helen is seated. Across the table from Helen, a woman observes the conversation.
Haben: Signing is just as valuable as using an audible voice. Both are voices, both deserve respect. So whether one speaks with an accent, whether one types what they need to say, or maybe someone has a voice that you don’t quite understand, that’s an opportunity to take patience and try to learn to understand different kinds of voices.
So as part of Deafblind Awareness Week, I invite you to start listening, reading, and watching more Deafblind voices. With all the different ways we communicate, whether through the written word or signing. And in this post, I’m going to share several Deafblind people you can follow on social media. There are a lot of us out there, so diversify your feed and listen to more Deafblind voices.