I’ve written quite a bit about D/deaf people on my blog as I continued my education in an interpreter training program and by reviewing books by D/deaf folks. However, this is my the first book on Grab the Lapels about Usher’s Syndrome, a genetically inherited condition that typically starts with an infant born deaf. Later, tunnel vision increases, which eventually leads to blindness. Since I learned about it, I’ve been fascinated by Usher’s Syndrome because the child has the opportunity to learn sign language before they can no longer see. Perhaps you’re picturing Helen Keller.
One thing people forget is that deafness and blindness are often on a spectrum, meaning a blind person may have a tiny pinhole of vision. A deaf person may hear deep bass noises, etc. But what happens when a deaf person becomes blind? While I have not done it myself, I have seen and read about an interpreter putting his/her hands under a deaf-blind person’s, so he/she can feel the signs. There is also a method called protactile sign language, which you can see in action on PBS, that was created by and for deaf-blind people.
Catherine Hoffpauir Fischer (nicknamed “Kitty”) shares her story in Orchid of the Bayou. The title refers to the author noticing in a dream that in the bayou of Louisiana, where she grew up, orchids grow in trees, pulling water from the air and thriving, despite having shallow roots. She felt upon waking that the bayou orchid was much like deaf people: disconnected from a much of society, but thriving anyway. Hoffpauir Fischer was born in 1947, so when he family realized she was deaf, she was labeled “mentally retarded.”
However, Hoffpauir Fischer used her deafness to get away with inappropriate childish behavior. In fact, when she realized that a tooth under a pillow equals a visit from the tooth fairy (and money!), she tried to pull out her baby sister’s teeth. Not knowing sign language yet, Hoffpauir Fischer wrote, “… worried faces work well for expressing simple things, but they are utterly inadequate when trying to explain about tooth fairies, property rights, or bodily integrity.”
I’ve written about how most D/deaf authors describe their acquisition of language; it’s a major factor in the development of any human. Typically, the story is the D/deaf person either learns sign language in a school for the deaf, or they are forced to learn to speak and read lips. Some authors, like Kim Harrell and Terry Galloway, valued assimilating into the hearing community by using tools like cochlear implants and speech therapy. Others, like Rose Pizzo and Brandi Rarus, view sign language as a lifeline to developing autonomy and community.
Hoffpauir Fischer is in the sign language camp and credits her alma mater, the Louisiana School for the Deaf, as helping her flourish. Although deaf, she is aware of how deaf people sound to hearing people: “I don’t doubt that speech is important, maybe even terribly important, but sometimes poor speech is worse than no speech, and the emphasis hearing people put on tone and pronunciation is a constant source of irritation to deaf people. People hear whatever it is that makes our accent ‘deaf,’ and look at us like we’ve sprouted broccoli from our eye sockets.”
However, I’d like to take some time to explain the highlights of Orchid of the Bayou as it is written. Firstly, Hoffpauir Fischer is honest. When she describes her misdeeds as a spoiled child, she doesn’t make excuses for herself to soften her poor behavior. Later, when confronted with integration and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., she admits, “I guess I accepted and even adopted the racism, though I want to deny it.” Born in the 1940s in Louisiana, Hoffpauir Fischer’s deaf school was segregated; there was a separate school for black deaf children. She easily took to the casual racism, including racial slurs, common in her community. On a few occasions, she meets young black women who befriend her; thus, Hoffpauir Fischer attempts to unlearn her prejudice and doesn’t keep her hesitation from readers.
Furthermore, the author shares the hard details of her father’s alcoholism. Although he can keep it together (mostly) during weekdays, come Friday pay day, he’s late home from work because he’s drank all the money. After their mother’s death, Hoffpauir Fischer and her sister get jobs, much to their father’s shame. Later, they sign up for welfare, but the food given to them is moldy. Then, family intervenes (with no request from the girls), and they are able to eat again. Despite his addiction, Hoffpauir Fischer’s family is a strong unit. Her father isn’t afraid to cry when he drops his daughter off at the Louisiana School for the Deaf (students stay in dorms and the author’s family lives over an hour away), or when he wants his daughter to stay close to home instead of leaving for Washington, D.C. for college, so I felt the author was fair and balanced in her portrayal of a man who can be infuriating to readers.
Orchid of the Bayou is another excellent book published by Gallaudet University, the only college for Deaf students in the world. Does your library, particularly academic libraries, have any books published by Gallaudet?
Grab the Lapels 
Sounds like and interesting book and an interesting life story.
The university I work for has 4 libraries. The huge undergrad library has quite a number of books published by Gallaudet, the seminary library has a few books, and the graduate education/sociology library has a number. The law library where I work does not have any books, but we have congressional service information about Congress passing the Deaf Act and approving funding Gallaudet University. But also, University-wide, there are are number of Gallaudet published e-books, and many many many journal articles.
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I absolutely love that about your libraries, Stefanie. I was worried that only colleges that had interpreter training programs bought Gallaudet books, but they should be everywhere. On the surface, they tend to be about Deafness, but if people keep reading, you see how each story is a snapshot of oppression, segregation, and disability law. In fact, the Deaf President Now movement happened shortly before the ADA was passed, suggesting it was part of the thrust to really get America over the hurdle and get some legislation passed.
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Being the age I am I remember when children who were deaf or blind lived in institutions, away from their parents. But then, so did upper class boys, so obviously being parented wasn’t rated as highly then as it is now.
I hadn’t heard of Galludet University, it sounds like a great idea.
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There was a time in the U.S., too when anyone with a disability was put in an institution, and “disability” might mean a woman who doesn’t want to get married and have children. On the other hand, Thomas Gallaudet went to first England and then France to learn about sign language because he knew a little deaf girl and wondered where education for deaf children happened. This was in the 1800s. While I’m not saying no deaf people were institutionalized (some were because doctors thought they were “retarded”), there was also a path to education thanks to the first deaf school. Gallaudet University is named after that founder.
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This sounds really interesting. I will have to look and see if my library has any of these publications.
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I’m curious if Gallaudet Press has books in Canada because you guys also use ASL and the same national certification test for interpreters.
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The library has 2 books from them! One a poetry book and the other a book of ASL signs.
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Ooooh, which poetry book? Is it one by Joanne Weber?
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It was an anthology, looked like a collection of authors.
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I love that you ask this question at the end of your post about these books being available at our local libraries – time for us to check! I also love how honest this author sounds. Admitting to casual racism would never be an easy thing to admit, but I’m sure so many people did it considering the day and age they grew up in.
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I know there were expressions I used growing up that I thought were actual phrases but are rooted in prejudice, such as saying, when you want to buy something and negotiate, that you wanted to “Jew them down.” Since stuff just lives in the culture, so I get it.
Was this book or any from Gallaudet Press at your library?
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I couldn’t find this book, or any book by these authors in our collection. Which is surprising, because CPL has a huge collection!
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Nothing by Gallaudet University Press?
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Not that I could find, mind you I may have been searching the catalogue incorrectly. I clearly need a librarian’s help hah
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I checked my local library and as I expected, nothing. But, the National Library – at the other end of the scale – has quite a bit from Gallaudet.
I’m not sure whether this is going to be controversial, but while I think the institutionalisation of children with disabilities was a terrible thing, I also worry that we might have gone too far in the other direction whereby all children are mainstreamed regardless of their ability to fit into a class, resulting in huge disruptions for the rest of the children in the class and not necessarily right for the child either. There has to be some happy medium. Unfortunately, I don’t think human societies are very good at finding happy mediums.
Anyhow, this book sounds great. Maybe it’s that father’s sensitivity that is why he’s alcoholic, particularly if life is hard and he feels he can’t be the father or provider he’d like to be?
Also, the racism issue is interesting. It’s very easy for people to go along with the ideas of their times, to not question what is around you. For example, I learnt and believed that Captain Cook “discovered” Australia. How could he have, given people were already here? Why did I not question that? I have never been racist in my language or behaviour towards other people, but I didn’t question so much of the history I was taught or the language used that essentially ignored the existence (in so many ways) of our First Nations people.
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For many children, the passage of “least restrictive environment” was a boon. For example, famous activist Judy Heumann was put in a classroom in the basement with students who had cognitive disabilities because she was in a wheelchair. She didn’t fit at all. Therefore, students after that time would be in the mainstream classroom. I have a friend who is a special education teacher, which would have meant he had his own, secluded classroom when we were kids. However, now that means he’s in a classroom with another teacher (a lead teacher), and he focuses on his group. They’re often doing separate tasks, but then there are times when the children all work together. It’s a good mix. Plus, students see each other instead of being segregated. For Deaf students, mainstreaming can be a problem because instead of using ASL with everyone, they need an interpreter in every space (class, hallway, sports, etc.). So, it depends on what the student needs.
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Totally agree … there’s no one size fits all in this even for children with like disabilities but most of our western cultures aren’t good at dealing with individual nuance.
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