Deaf People Share #AbledsAreWeird Stories on Twitter

Last weekend there was a trending hashtag on Twitter #AbledsAreWeird. Disabled people shared their head-scratching experiences of how they were treated by abled people. Those experiences were often negative or oppressive. 

There were several Deaf people who shared stories, and I’ll show you a few. 

The first is by RIT Professor Dr. Joseph Hill. 

@JaceyHill: “One time, I was invited to give a talk at a university about sign language studies. I gave the talk in ASL with the interpreters. After 45 minutes, my first question was "how did you get here?" It implied I couldn't get to the university without help. #AbledsAreWeird" 

Dr. Hill posted 14 other weird stories on his thread, including assumptions by some people that he couldn’t travel internationally without a hearing person. 

The next tweet is from Deaf actress and co-creator of “This Close,” Shoshannah Stern. 

@Shoshannah7: “Got an F on paper I worked very hard on. My teacher said even though he couldn’t prove it was plagiarism he knew I had not written it because he had never seen a deaf person write in English like that. #AbledsAreWeird" 

Stern said this happened a long time when she was still in school and because of this, she never told her online graduate school teachers that she was deaf. 

The next tweet is from deafblind activist Andrew Parsons. 

@adrparsons: “Deaf person makes a sign-song video. Gets 300 likes on Twitter, 1.4k views on YouTube. Hearing person makes same video, gets 11k likes on Twitter, praises from Deaf Hollywood, 100k views on YouTube. #AbledsAreWeird" 

It’s tough to get recognized on social media when you’re a deaf person. You’re often overlooked for abled people. 

The next tweet is from Katsa, a Deaf blogger. 

@katsavalenz “This is a lot like my experience except with deafness. 

College: we need proof you are deaf 
Me: I gave you proof last year
College: we need verification you are still deaf
Me: I'm not I magically got my hearing back after being deaf for 28 years /sarcasm #AbledsAreWeird

That’s true, there is no cure for deafness yet. 

There are many more stories on Twitter under the hashtag. This shows that those weird experiences are common and shared. 

Links to the four Twitter accounts are in the transcript. 

Dr. Hill: https://twitter.com/jaceyhill/status/1107302097626652672

Stern: https://twitter.com/Shoshannah7/status/1107345639728279557

Parsons: https://twitter.com/adrparsons/status/1107447071047483392

Katsa: https://twitter.com/katsavalenz/status/1107653068114546693

https://www.scarymommy.com/viral-tweet-disabilities/