Tag: deaf
The Sounds of the City
Friend’s request, who wanted so see Clint Barton wearing his hearing aid. I did some research online, asked on Tumblr, checkout the latest issue of Hawkeye but I couldn’t find what his hearing aid looked liked so I went for something visible. Sorry if it’s not 100% accurate.
Photoshop CS6 – Painter 12
tips on how to realistically write deaf clint barton
hello, fanfiction writers! i’m making this post because i’ve seen some deaf clint barton stories going around, and there are a lot of misconceptions about hearing loss and hearing aids and all that jazz, so since i’m hard of hearing, i thought i’d bring up a few common misconceptions.
- clint just reads everyone’s lips and understands exactly what people are saying. this is basically impossible. only 30% of spoken english can be lipread. for me, if i can hear your vowels and read your lips at the same time, i can typically get what you’re saying, but that’s not a guarantee. clint also wouldn’t be able to pick up lipreading overnight. that’s an acquired skill.
- hearing aids! there are many different types of hearing aids, so make sure you do your research on those. there are BTE (behind the ear) hearing aids, which are the most common. then there are the RITE (receiver in the ear), CIC (completely in canal), ITC (in the canal), ITE (in the ear) hearing aids. even if you’re going to have tony stark whip up some cool state of the art hearing aids for clint, it’s helpful for you to know which style tony would be modeling these after. keep in mind that some hearing aids don’t have an off switch—the only ways to turn those hearing aids off are to take the batteries out, which you need to do every night while the hearing aids themselves chill in a dehumidifier overnight.
- american sign language is just like spoken english. not true. american sign language is a complex language with its own grammar and syntax. make sure you research american sign language. watch videos, read books, learn as much as you can. you don’t have to learn the language, but familiarize yourself with it. you also can’t learn ASL overnight, so clint can’t just read a book on it and then be an expert the next day.
- hearing aids fix everything and make his hearing normal. hearing aids do NOT fix everything. they HELP, they do not FIX. so even if clint wears hearing aids, his hearing will not be 100% perfect. he’ll still miss pieces of the conversation. he’ll still have to ask people to repeat themselves. not all the time, but it’ll still happen. he won’t magically become hearing because he’s wearing hearing aids. remember: they’re called hearing AIDS not hearing FIXES.
- two days later, clint is back to shooting arrows perfectly. this isn’t true. when the inner ear suffers severe trauma, it freaks out. as a result of the traumatic way clint loses his hearing, he would have acute unilateral vestibulopathy. symptoms of this include: severe dizziness, nausea, blurry vision, everything moving around so his eyes would be darting about trying to make his vision be still, and possibly neck pain. his balance would be thrown way off whack, and he wouldn’t be able to walk very well after two days, let alone try to shoot a bow and arrow. typically, these symptoms last anywhere from a few weeks to a month, depending on the type of injury. but make sure you research this yourself, so you know more specific details! my really awesome friend gave me the information on this, so shoutout to her!
ok! i think i covered the most common misconceptions. if you have any further questions, and you feel comfortable asking me, go ahead! i am more than happy to answer any questions to the best of my abilities. i think it’s awesome that marvel is now incorporating a superhero that isn’t fully abled. it’s about time the rest of us got some representation. go forth, and write well!
This was really instructive and helpful. Thank you very much for enlightening us! 🙂
research is always good. Thanks for the info
why deaf clint barton is important
ok, all you boys and girls who read comics, listen up.
if you read matt fraction’s hawkeye comics, you know that clint barton has been stabbed in the ears with arrows, and as a result, is now deaf. furthermore, if you read the comics, you know that today was the release of the asl issue.
in case you don’t know me, i’m hard of hearing. i grew up hearing, and my hearing wound up getting fucked up the older i got. now i’m 20 years old and wear hearing aids. my signing isn’t as good as it could be since i’m surrounded by hearing people who won’t learn asl to communicate with me, but i use it as often as i can.
when i read the asl issue, i found a superhero that i could actually relate to, an actual, real, human being, flawed superhero that d/Deaf/hoh people can relate to and understand, particularly those people who have lost their hearing as they’ve gotten older the way i have. this asl issue speaks more than anyone can understand.
admittedly, the issue didn’t quite use proper signs all the time, and the grammatical structure was more english than asl (asl has a very different grammar syntax), but for now, it was enough. it was representation. it was a step forward. (and why was clint talking on the phone if he’s deaf? honey, if you deaf, you deaf. i’m hard of hearing, and i can’t hear shit on the phone. like, i get he was letting jess know that it was him talking, but son, you are deaf and cannot hear her response. but that’s ok, it’s just details.)
so marvel, you don’t know how much your asl issue meant to me, but i’d like to thank you, matt fraction, and everyone else involved with this from the bottom of my heart. thank you for giving representation to a group of people who don’t really get very much representation at all. thank you for for showing me a superhero who gets it.
deaf clint barton is important.
disabled superheroes are important.
disabled superheroes getting back on their feet when their disability makes things rough for them is important.
disabled superheroes trying to figure out how they fit into the abled world around them is important.
deaf clint barton is important.
This. All of this.
Hawkeye 19 link and ASL translation!
One upon a time, I had a deaf friend that I learned basic ASL to be able to communicate with. Hawkeye 19 is right up my ally, so I figured I’d post this for people that want to know what’s being said in this issue.
Here’s a download link to the comic via my Dropbox.
PLEASE READ THE ISSUE WITHOUT THE TRANSLATION FIRST! Matt Fraction stated that he wanted readers to feel the sense of confusion and loss along with Clint, so read it as it is first, then go back with the translation. ASL translation is under the cut.
HAWKEYE #19
MATT FRACTION
• DAVID AJA (A/C)
“Rio Bravo” – PART 4
• The sense-shattering fallout of the Clint vs. the Clown — Clint Barton has been deafened!
• With the Barton Brothers this battered and bloodied, surely they’ll make easy pickins for the Bros, right? Bro? Seriously?
• If we do our jobs right THIS time, this issue will be the Dog Issue of Sign Language issues
This is so important. This is so damn important.
Not only is Fraction undoing the retcon of other writers who took away Clint’s disability, but he’s taking that disability back to his childhood before it originally started in classic canon.
This is so important because Fraction is refusing to let Clint’s disability be overwritten anymore so long as he has hold of the tenure.
YES THIS.
I have been upset that they ~magically fixed~ Clint’s hearing since I found out he was ever deaf, and the idea that he’s been hard of hearing since a childhood “accident” (aka – you know it was his dad, I am sure it was his dad) that was unable to heal fully because y’know HIS EARDRUMS WERE DAMAGED is just. Yes good. Especially since Fraction said he’s been writing Clint as if he’s been hard of hearing since he was a kid, and getting “fixed” only took him back to the level he was at before the sonic arrow incident.
This is so important to me for reasons I can’t even entirely express and basically this is the best thing and I’m going to cry while I read it.
This explanation that he’s been hard of hearing all along would also make me feel better about the “Spanish-sounding stuff” that turns out to be Russian (probably), as if Clint Barton wouldn’t recognize Spanish (living in BedStuy? Please.) or Russian (working closely with a Russian ex-pat and also an intelligence agency employee).
Fraction has explicitly said that’s what was intended by those captions/speech bubbles/whatever you want to call them. I wish it’d been more explicit in the comics themselves, but that was what he was going for.
One of Marvel’s Avengers Turns to Sign Language. The story strives to connect readers with what he is experiencing: when he can’t hear, the word balloons on the page are blank. The comic also makes extensive use of sign language, but provides no key to interpreting them. “If nothing else, it’s an opportunity for hearing people to get a taste of what it might be like to be deaf,” Mr. Fraction said.
Here’s Hawkeye holding up the ASL sign for ‘I love you’ while he looks back over his shoulder.
I love Hawkeye and can’t wait to see more of him in the next Avenger’s movie. I also am looking forward to the Hawkeye comic that is suppose to be coming out featuring the use of ASL, I hope it comes out soon we’ve been patiently waiting.
If you like the image and have some disposable income consider supporting the artist and buying a print or card or sticker here: http://www.redbubble.com/people/mjfitz/works/12270819-hawk-love
EEEEE, this is so cute!
And the ASL issue of Hawkeye comes out on the 30th, iirc. ROCK THAT ASL, BARTON!
knitting in the dark 