Resources For Writing Deaf, Mute, Or Blind Characters

Bob was later caught with a whole island’s worth of weed in his inventory.

Tips on writing sign language

Disclaimers: while I have been learning ASL (American Sign Language, I am not yet fluent. Also, I am not deaf. Both of these things being said, I have been learning ASL for nearly a year and I’ve been doing independant research about the language itself and the Deaf community. What I’ve listed below are things that I have learned from my own personal experience signing, what I’ve learned in my ASL class, and what I’ve learned from my independant research.

1) When you write signed dialogue, use quotation marks and everything else you would use for any other type of dialogue. Yes, I know they didn’t do that in the Magnus Chase series, but many Deaf readers were made uncomfortable at the choice to depict sign language as not speech. Establish early on that the character signs and then use tags such as “xe signed,” or “hir motions were snappy with irritation.”

2) Without facial expressions, someone’s signs are going to be almost meaningless. All of the grammar is in the face, as are some descriptors. For example, if you can’t see a character’s face, and you’re only looking at their hands, the signs would be the same for the statement “Xe doesn’t have dogs.” and the question “Does xe have dogs?” 

3) There is no such thing as fluent lipreading. The best lipreaders in the world can only understand about 70% of what’s being said, and factors such as darkness, the presence of mustaches, lack of context, and a bunch of other common things can easily lower that ability. If someone’s lipreading, they’re taking little pieces of what they can lipread, and stitching together context and other details to get a general picture of what’s going on, but there’s still always going to be holes.

4) If you’re writing a character who can’t hear, know the difference between deaf (lowercase d) and Deaf (uppercase D). The medical term for not being able to hear anything is deaf. People who use their deafness as part of their identity are referred to, and refer to themselves as Deaf. They are part of the Deaf community.

(more tips below cut)

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It’s here !! The guide for two-legged people who don’t know how to draw wheelchairs !!! 7 pages of infodump ! Disclaimer : I don’t know everything, I have one (1) experience of wheelchair user who used both bad and good chairs, and I share what I learned.

Image description :

1) Calvin in his wheelchair saying “yo” under a huge title “how to draw manual wheelchairs properly by Calvin Arium, a wheelchair user comic artist”.

2) A character says “my character self propels in a chair that was outdated in 1970 lol” Calvin says “so it looks like you two legged people don’t know the difference between an hospital chair and a chair made to be independant” an arrow point the crapppy chair, saying “we never want to see this again”

a bubble says “the hospital chair is extremely unpractical, tough considering it’s cheaper than a good custom chair a lot of us have only this”

3) a character hurt himself trying to reach the wheels of the hospital chair. Several arrows point why the chair is unpractical : “high backrest restrain shoulders movement” “huge armrest restrains wheel access” “separated footrest : amovible, cheap, bulky” “x structure, foldable but heavy” “huge front casters for stability” “heavy wheels”

4) Several arrows point an active wheelchair (the KSL by Küshall) : “usually no armrest” “a low backrest allow more movement” “light, design, ferning expersive” “special cushion to avoind injuries” “knee angle is usually 90°” “one single piece of frame, sometimes entirely welded” “weight : from 4 to 10kg” “often rigid” “center of the wheel is the center of gravity” “higher quality wheels : less spikes”

5) A hand grab different parts of the wheel, pushing harder in the second half. Bubbles says “some have gloves, some don’t. The hand must grab the biggest area possible. Less movement = more energy. This is a common but not only way to push.Calvin is on his back wheels, rolling on grass and dirt bubble says “popping a wheelie is when a wheelchair user rolls on their back wheels to roll on every complicated surface.

6) several drawings illustrate the folding frame, the ergonomic but rigid and expensive backrest, the separated footrest (only for folding frame), the handles, the folding handles, athe amovibles handles, or no handles, the cool fancy loopwheels, the pretty custom colors 

7) More Features ! The fancy rigid-foldable frame, the anti tippers (sometimes used by beginners), the motorization (wheels, smart drive) when propelling yourself is difficult Calvin says “and now vroom vroom motherfuckers”

Consider also supporting me by buying me a coffee on ko-fi : ko-fi.com/calvinarium 

Thanks !

EDIT : Here is a youtube playlist about choosing, cleaning and using active manual wheelchairs in the public space, I learned a lot from those videos when I was a wheelie newbie. (Not sure they’re all captionned tho) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3j9XB2x5HYmZqgLakRCNt_fjsVZjDAkJ

Super detailed questions about your OCs

1. What’s their full name? Why was that chosen? Does it mean anything? 2. Do they have any titles? How did they get them? 3. Did they have a good childhood? What are fond memories they have of it? What’s a bad memory? 4. What is their relationship with their parents? What’s a good and bad memory with them? Did they know both parents? 5. Do they have any siblings? What’s their names? What is their relationship with them? Has their relationship changed since they were kids to adults? 6. What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate? 7. Did they have lots of friends as a child? Did they keep any of their childhood friends into adulthood? 8. Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals? 9. Do animals like them? Do they get on well with animals? 10. Do they like children? Do children like them? Do they have or want any children? What would they be like as a parent? Or as a godparent/babysitter/ect? 11. Do they have any special diet requirements? Are they a vegetarian? Vegan? Have any allergies? 12. What is their favourite food? 13. What is their least favourite food? 14. Do they have any specific memories of food/a restaurant/meal? 15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking? 16. Do they collect anything? What do they do with it? Where do they keep it? 17. Do they like to take photos? What do they like to take photos of? Selfies? What do they do with their photos? 18. What’s their favourite genre of: books, music, tv shows, films, video games and anything else 19. What’s their least favourite genres? 20. Do they like musicals? Music in general? What do they do when they’re favourite song comes? 21. Do they have a temper? Are they patient? What are they like when they do lose their temper? 22. What are their favourite insults to use? What do they insult people for? Or do they prefer to bitch behind someone’s back? 23. Do they have a good memory? Short term or long term? Are they good with names? Or faces? 24. What is their sleeping pattern like? Do they snore? What do they like to sleep on? A soft or hard mattress? 25. What do they find funny? Do they have a good sense of humour? Are they funny themselves? 26. How do they act when they’re happy? Do they sing? Dance? Hum? Or do they hide their emotions? 27. What makes them sad? Do they cry regularly? Do they cry openly or hide it? What are they like they are sad? 28. What is their biggest fear? What in general scares them? How do they act when they’re scared? 29. What do they do when they find out someone else’s fear? Do they tease them? Or get very over protective? 30. Do they exercise? Regularly? Or only when forced? What do they act like pre-work out and post-work out? 31. Do they drink? What are they like drunk? What are they like hungover? How do they act when other people are drunk or hungover? Kind or teasing? 32. What do they dress like? What sorta shops do they buy clothes from? Do they wear the fashion that they like? What do they wear to sleep? Do they wear makeup? What’s their hair like? 33. What underwear do they wear? Boxers or briefs? Lacey? Comfy granny panties? 34. What is their body type? How tall are they? Do they like their body? 35. What’s their guilty pleasure? What is their totally unguilty pleasure? 36. What are they good at? What hobbies do they like? Can they sing? 37. Do they like to read? Are they a fast or slow reader? Do they like poetry? Fictional or non fiction? 38. What do they admire in others? What talents do they wish they had? 39. Do they like letters? Or prefer emails/messaging? 40. Do they like energy drinks? Coffee? Sugary food? Or can they naturally stay awake and alert? 41. What’s their sexuality? What do they find attractive? Physically and mentally? What do they like/need in a relationship? 42. What are their goals? What would they sacrifice anything for? What is their secret ambition? 43. Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of non religious people? 44. What is their favourite season? Type of weather? Are they good in the cold or the heat? What weather do they complain in the most? 45. How do other people see them? Is it similar to how they see themselves? 46. Do they make a good first impression? Does their first impression reflect them accurately? How do they introduce themselves? 47. How do they act in a formal occasion? What do they think of black tie wear? Do they enjoy fancy parties and love to chit chat or loathe the whole event? 48. Do they enjoy any parties? If so what kind? Do they organise the party or just turn up? How do they act? What if they didn’t want to go but were dragged along by a friend? 49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them? 50. If they could only take one bag of stuff somewhere with them: what would they pack? What do they consider their essentials?

"Hes a NaTiVe vIRgiNaN!"

"... I just want the horse"

good content

Library books art hack by @danarune on Twitter

black people, please take care of yourselves. please take care of your health. please take care of your mind. please take care of your spirit.

i understand if your soul is not at peace. i understand if you are exhausted. just, please take care of yourselves in these dark, hateful times and surround yourself with people who understand why.

I feel like this deserves its own post.

Some Conversations I Overhear-

Eddie: *spray vanilla air freshener*

Venom: You Vanilla Whore.

Eddie: Oi, I'm not a vanilla whore.

Venom: Sorry Vanilla Bitch.

-

Eddie: Can you survive chemical fires?

Venom: No-

Eddie: Then you can't be my friend.

Eddie: *yeets Venom*

-

Anne Seeing Venom: THE ALASKAN BULL WORM!

-

Venom: Can we get McDonald's?

Anne and Dan: You're dying!

Venom: So?

-

Venom: hewwo mwister obama

Riot: God I knew you would be like this-

-

Eddie: I love you-

Venom: Aww bitch me too the fuck.

Eddie: ...

Eddie: I'll get 'em next time.

So it’s true? You really do lose all your brain cells when you are gay

Ok so this is like the funniest ask I’ve ever gotten.

...and yeah, it’s true. all of it.