The second quarter book for my interpreting book club through my job, Rachel Kolb’s memoir, Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice, is a must read. Kolb was born deaf, and as soon as her parents knew this, they started learning sign language. Because she was born in 1990, Kolb was a first generation beneficiary of the ADA — Americans with Disabilities Act — that would guarantee her right to equal access, including American Sign Language interpreters in school. While most deaf babies at the time were quickly sent to surgery for a cochlear implant, Kolb’s parents felt only she should decide. At home, her parents made sure all communication was accessible to Kolb, meaning everyone, including Kolb’s sister, signed, and objects throughout the house had note cards with the English word for each item taped to it. This is the dream that many Deaf people want to see come true!

However, being set up beautifully does not ensure a smooth journey, and that’s what Articulate is about. Note that the word “articulate” can function as an adjective meaning to express yourself clearly or as a verb meaning to voice clearly. If you remember Marlee Matlin voicing her acceptance speech at the 1987 Academy Awards, you know how contentious it is when a Deaf person speaks. The Deaf community loses access to that speech and feels the Deaf speaker has turned his/her back on their identity. Hearing people feel no burden because they don’t have to learn sign language to communicate with that Deaf person (so long as the hearing person has little to say…) and say things like, “You speak so well. I just wanted to tell you. I would never have known you were deaf.”

Kolb analyzes her communication journey, from being told her signing is too Englishy and not truly ASL to hours of speech therapy during which she memorizes the placement of the teeth, tongue, and lips to create the right sound (remember, the Deaf person doesn’t hear the sound!). Kolb writes, “Follow what [the speech therapist] tells you do to, and you will get there eventually, even when it makes no sense why you should be practicing this skill…” She decides to get a cochlear implant. Although the implant works, it does not make her like a hearing person. In fact, in college, she continues to tell people she can read lips (and this is dodgy at best), but she has to either remind everyone to talk one at a time, don’t talk behind their hand or napkin, and to look directly at her, OR she misses out on everything, something called Dinner Table Syndrome in the Deaf community. Kolb doesn’t write an easy-answers book, which I love. Instead, she demonstrates that communication is a journey for everyone, including her hearing friends that try to learn ASL and attend awkward “voices off” dinners and her Deaf friends that encourage Kolb to stop taking on all the burden of communication. “Good speech can be a trap, you know,” her Deaf friend reminds her.

From Stanford for undergrad to Oxford for a masters and then Emory for a PhD, followed by a fellowship at Harvard, Kolb never stops exploring her communication preferences. What would happen if she stopped voicing for herself, relying on interpreters instead? As a person in love with the English language, could she let go like that? The following scene is disastrous and embarrassing to interpreters like me when a new interpreter was sent to a social event for academics. The interpreter makes Kolb sound unsure and uneducated because he/she didn’t have the same expertise in the topics at the event, meaning that interpreter was not a good fit. Sometimes, social events are given to new interpreters because they are “low-stakes events,” but for a Deaf person, this is their life.

Without writing a chapter called How You Can Get Involved, Kolb explains how you can get involved. Before you invite anyone with accommodation needs to a place or event, YOU call ahead and ask what’s available. Do they have a wheelchair ramp, will they hire an interpreter, are there closed captions, or braille menus? When Kolb explained the work she had to do in college to get accommodations to attend events outside of class, I was surprised that she was basically her own secretary working with the Disabilities Office, which was like a part-time job on top of academics.

I do wonder the impact Articulate would have on a reader not familiar with the Deaf community, but I think you should go ahead anyway and give yourself that exposure. You can always Google whatever you’re unfamiliar with, if anything, because Kolb is an eloquent writer with her PhD in English.