author of the NYT best seller TRUE BIZ, also GIRL AT WAR | deafie | mama | she/they 🧏🏻♀️🌈
Sep 26 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Ohhh-kayyyy. I was on a Deaf Awareness panel at which a Teacher of the Deaf (TOD) made a claim that deaf children who don't have access to some degree of sound don't learn to read and write English proficiently. Let's debunk, shall we? 🧵
A lot of oralist rhetoric about deaf kids' reading comes from studies in the 90s that found deaf kids' median reading levels maxing out at around the 4th grade. But this nearly-40-year-old data set is painting an incomplete picture. So why were those kids hitting a ceiling?
May 8, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Deaf is trending (again/still) because hearing people cannot listen. We are the experts on what it means to be deaf or hard-of-hearing. We have lived experience, the the social, cultural and linguistic knowledge. We use the assistive technology you don't understand. Listen to us.
Assuming not all hearing/nondisabled people are acting in bad faith, here's a short thread of information that might help. First, cochlear implants and hearing aids ARE NOT cures. Here is how they actually work, and some of the many variables involved 2/8 nytimes.com/2018/11/21/opi…
Feb 18, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Seems like a good time to remind you that the Offices of Diversity and Inclusion as well as HR exist for one reason: to prevent the organization from 1. having to spend $ and 2. getting sued. It is literally against their mandate to help you. Do not engage if at all possible.
As a disabled person, HR was the number one obstacle to obtaining accommodations. As a pregnant person, it was a multi-meeting debate about how to ensure I would return for two days before the end of the semester and take over a class since my 12 wks leave would run out.
Oct 30, 2021 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
ICYMI: CVS currently has a case before the Supreme Court to dismantle 504 protections for disabled people--their argument is that we should only be protected against discrimination that can be proven "purposeful." Maybe drop them a line and let them know you're watching? 🧵
Crux of the case and problems: aapd.com/press-releases…
Sep 30, 2021 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
For the last day of #DeafAwarenessMonth (#DeafAcceptanceMonth) a thread of greatest hits:
1. Yes, I can drive--with my eyes. Studies show that many deaf people (particularly signing Deaf people) have better spacial awareness and quicker response times, so we can use our peripheral vision to see what's around us even if we don't hear your horn or whatever.
