This serial focuses more on the experiences of a late-deafened child rather than the Deaf culture, community, language, and people. Additionally, the story takes place in the 1970s, not the current time, despite some anachronistic elements.
As a Deaf person who grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I recognised two elements that clearly established the storyline in the 1970s. One is Martha's wish that the television programmes had the subtitles (the first programme to be broadcasted with closed-captioning in the US was on 24 March 1980). Another one is the awkwardly bulky hearing aid and microphone systems that began to appear in the classrooms during the 1970s.
The serial does a very good job of showing the biggest issue with the oralism: the difficulties in reading lips, in keeping up with the group discussions (especially at the dinner tables, sleepovers, classrooms, etc.). Not to mention the scenarios where the lip-reading is difficult if not impossible: moustaches and beards; person's face not in direct view when speaking; mumblings; people overlapping each other when talking at same time; person speaking so fast or with strong accent (Americans have hard time reading British or German, for instance); in the dark; and so forth.
Sometimes, the hearing aids (and cochlear implants) aren't the "magic bullet" in compensating for the hearing loss as the character, Martha, found out. The people's voices are often heard as muffled, which is exactly what many hearing aid users experience to the varying degrees. During the PE class, the glaring issue was obvious: the PE teacher wore the microphone, but her classmates were yelling to pass the ball to them, confusing Martha and causing her to play poorly. When the teacher stepped out of the classroom to use the toilet, Martha heard the whole thing. That was exactly what we as schoolchildren experienced in the 1970s! One of my hard-of-hearing classmates could understand the conversation so she took the earpiece out for the whole class to eavesdrop: the teacher mocked about one of us who had what was later labelled as high-functioning autism and about some of us giving her hard time. Imagine her horror when she returned to the classroom! Afterwards, the entire equipment was promptly returned to the manufacturer.
At one point, her microphone was broken and sent to the repair centre in Silver Springs, Maryland. Martha had to make do without it for a several weeks, and it showed badly in her composure and schoolwork. Back then, we didn't have Fedex or overnight service so it took a while for the package to be shipped and returned.
It is also painful to watch Martha feeling so extremely conscious about her hearing loss. My experience with the late-deafened children and adults were not dissimilar from Martha. Some of them would rather pretend that they don't have hearing loss, and it can lead to the awkward, embarrassing conversations or situations. Martha was trying to hide the bulky body-mounted hearing aid and cables because it really stood out prominently and impossible to overlook.
When her mother enrolled herself and her daughter in the ASL class, Martha recoiled and had a meltdown there. That is typical attitude for some late-deafened people. After her meltdown, they had ice cream at the diner where, by coincidence, the deaf couple was signing to each other at another table. Her mother pointed out how beautiful they communicated in sign language, but Martha denounced it because she didn't want people to stare at her when she signs. Seeing her mother's dejection was also painful, too. Back then, it was mostly true with people staring and mocking us when we signed in public.
At one point, the serial is spot on about the so-called "token deaf". Sometimes, the hearing people "adopted" us because we were seen as a novelty and exotic, showcasing their "progressive thinking". Yet, it did more harm than good for us because they tend to focus on our deafness rather than on our persona. Sometimes, they are so patronising and giving me the cheesy praise ("Wow, you can do that!", "How do you do that if you can't hear?!?"). I heard the same from the African-Americans who complained about their white colleagues mentioning, "I have three black friends.", "I used to have a black student as my roommate at the college.", and like.
The part about superhero is common fantasy amongst the deaf/Deaf and hard-of-hearing children who want to dispel the injustice caused by the hearing children and people. I believe that might have been attributed to the popular 15-minute ASL show broadcasted by PBS in 1978 or 1979. One of the show's regular skits on the show had a superhero who would fly out to show people how to sign properly. One hilarious skit showed her being so passionate about signing "I love you" that the guy fell in love with her rather than another woman he was trying to woo.
What's so cool is seeing the character signing in the cartoon show. Of course, using the hearing person as an ASL teacher is considered "taboo" today. Yet, the serial took place in the late 1970s when the ASL classes weren't as common as other foreign languages unless taught by the departments of communication disorders (that's what they were called back then) at the universities and community colleges.
I certainly hope that the serial would be expanded to show whether Martha had softened her perspectives of her hearing loss over the time and whether she had broadened the communication modes to include the sign language and emerging assistive technologies.
As a Deaf person who grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I recognised two elements that clearly established the storyline in the 1970s. One is Martha's wish that the television programmes had the subtitles (the first programme to be broadcasted with closed-captioning in the US was on 24 March 1980). Another one is the awkwardly bulky hearing aid and microphone systems that began to appear in the classrooms during the 1970s.
The serial does a very good job of showing the biggest issue with the oralism: the difficulties in reading lips, in keeping up with the group discussions (especially at the dinner tables, sleepovers, classrooms, etc.). Not to mention the scenarios where the lip-reading is difficult if not impossible: moustaches and beards; person's face not in direct view when speaking; mumblings; people overlapping each other when talking at same time; person speaking so fast or with strong accent (Americans have hard time reading British or German, for instance); in the dark; and so forth.
Sometimes, the hearing aids (and cochlear implants) aren't the "magic bullet" in compensating for the hearing loss as the character, Martha, found out. The people's voices are often heard as muffled, which is exactly what many hearing aid users experience to the varying degrees. During the PE class, the glaring issue was obvious: the PE teacher wore the microphone, but her classmates were yelling to pass the ball to them, confusing Martha and causing her to play poorly. When the teacher stepped out of the classroom to use the toilet, Martha heard the whole thing. That was exactly what we as schoolchildren experienced in the 1970s! One of my hard-of-hearing classmates could understand the conversation so she took the earpiece out for the whole class to eavesdrop: the teacher mocked about one of us who had what was later labelled as high-functioning autism and about some of us giving her hard time. Imagine her horror when she returned to the classroom! Afterwards, the entire equipment was promptly returned to the manufacturer.
At one point, her microphone was broken and sent to the repair centre in Silver Springs, Maryland. Martha had to make do without it for a several weeks, and it showed badly in her composure and schoolwork. Back then, we didn't have Fedex or overnight service so it took a while for the package to be shipped and returned.
It is also painful to watch Martha feeling so extremely conscious about her hearing loss. My experience with the late-deafened children and adults were not dissimilar from Martha. Some of them would rather pretend that they don't have hearing loss, and it can lead to the awkward, embarrassing conversations or situations. Martha was trying to hide the bulky body-mounted hearing aid and cables because it really stood out prominently and impossible to overlook.
When her mother enrolled herself and her daughter in the ASL class, Martha recoiled and had a meltdown there. That is typical attitude for some late-deafened people. After her meltdown, they had ice cream at the diner where, by coincidence, the deaf couple was signing to each other at another table. Her mother pointed out how beautiful they communicated in sign language, but Martha denounced it because she didn't want people to stare at her when she signs. Seeing her mother's dejection was also painful, too. Back then, it was mostly true with people staring and mocking us when we signed in public.
At one point, the serial is spot on about the so-called "token deaf". Sometimes, the hearing people "adopted" us because we were seen as a novelty and exotic, showcasing their "progressive thinking". Yet, it did more harm than good for us because they tend to focus on our deafness rather than on our persona. Sometimes, they are so patronising and giving me the cheesy praise ("Wow, you can do that!", "How do you do that if you can't hear?!?"). I heard the same from the African-Americans who complained about their white colleagues mentioning, "I have three black friends.", "I used to have a black student as my roommate at the college.", and like.
The part about superhero is common fantasy amongst the deaf/Deaf and hard-of-hearing children who want to dispel the injustice caused by the hearing children and people. I believe that might have been attributed to the popular 15-minute ASL show broadcasted by PBS in 1978 or 1979. One of the show's regular skits on the show had a superhero who would fly out to show people how to sign properly. One hilarious skit showed her being so passionate about signing "I love you" that the guy fell in love with her rather than another woman he was trying to woo.
What's so cool is seeing the character signing in the cartoon show. Of course, using the hearing person as an ASL teacher is considered "taboo" today. Yet, the serial took place in the late 1970s when the ASL classes weren't as common as other foreign languages unless taught by the departments of communication disorders (that's what they were called back then) at the universities and community colleges.
I certainly hope that the serial would be expanded to show whether Martha had softened her perspectives of her hearing loss over the time and whether she had broadened the communication modes to include the sign language and emerging assistive technologies.