John Lee Clark
Sheldon Avenue
It was nice and sunny on Sheldon Avenue Then a black family moved there The girl Wilma was nice and became my sister’s best friend and we gave her a neat name sign like wine But Wilma’s little brother was a pest Every day he ran up to us and made faces and beat [...]
The reason I don’t drink
When I entered Gallaudet I was ready to be a rebel But the problem was that everyone there was drinking and if I drank I would be a follower and not a rebel So I said drink me never But what really nailed me was seeing my first drunk person I was walking down the [...]
Great Expectations
From time to time, I would be startled when one of my friends or acquaintances decides to “leave” our community. They are always non-natives, often people who found their way into our world as adults after excruciating childhoods as the only deaf one in their families and schools. One woman who recently did this said [...]
Does disability really need to be ‘fixed’?
(Illustration by Adrean Clark) Every time there is an advance in surgical audiology or genetic engineering, a wave of alarm ripples through the signing community. Doctors are intent on eradicating deafness. They subscribe to the belief that there’s something wrong with being deaf. So they make it their business to try to fix it, hoping [...]