Marlee Matlin on Being Deaf

One of my fondest memories has to do with Marlee Matlin's first appearance in Children of a Lesser God. My roommate at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and I had agreed to go see her performance at a local theater which was showing an open-captioned (like a foreign film with subtitles) version of the movie. I knew it was going to be popular. But my roommate wanted to sleep later. I forced her out of bed that morning, telling her that if we didn’t get going that minute, we might be too late to see the movie. As it turned out, I was right! The line to see the movie was around the block. It sold out.

I also remember how, after Matlin won the Oscar for her performance in that movie, many people thought that was the end of her career. She went on to prove them wrong by developing a long-lasting, successful career as an actress, writer, and producer. Now Matlin has spoken to About.com about growing up deaf.

Marlee Matlin On Being Deaf

When I was growing up, my parents expressed a concern that my deafness would be an insurmountable barrier in a world where words and sounds were so important to everyday living. But instead of agonizing over my deafness, they faced it head on and embraced it. They sent me to schools where I learned to both speak and sign, and they encouraged me to make friends in the neighborhood. But most importantly, they treated me as any child should be treated with love and respect.

The greatest challenge comes when one fails to realize that the real "handicap" of deafness does not lie in the ear. It lies in the mind. Though some have said that deafness cuts you off from people, I can say that happens only if you let it. If this were not true, there would not be successful deaf doctors, lawyers, educators, scientists, business people and even actors. [Including Matlin herself].

We drive cars, we have families, we sign, we speak, we read lips and some of us can hear to varying degrees. Today, we have almost 100% access with the advent of the Internet, Instant Messaging, e-mail, texting and video relay. But, discrimination and barriers still exist —- 30 million deaf and hard of hearing people like me are unable to walk into most movie theaters to watch a film because there is no nationwide policy on captioning of theatrical films as there is in television. And for the millions of web sites that have streaming video, there is still very little closed captioning. As for me, executives in Hollywood have been known to ask directors that I am working with if I'm going to be "deaf for the entire series" and I still get handed Braille menus on airplanes.

I look at these situations not as challenges, but as opportunities to show how proud I am of my rich culture -- deaf culture. Actually, I like the new way of looking at Deaf culture. It's called Deafhood. It's the idea that deafness has a positive value rather than as something that needs to be cured or is challenging. It's all about making noise and standing up for who we are. Being deaf means being anything but silent. On the contrary, when one accepts deaf people of all kinds and language preferences as their culture, one realizes that silence is the last thing one will ever hear from them.

Remember, no one will ever have to choose between being blind or deaf. And we all have challenges in life of one kind or another. But I’m sure you’ll agree that we can achieve much more in overcoming barriers if we focus on our abilities rather than dwell on our perceived "disabilities."