I noticed there was a consistent stream of optimism that ran through the deaf and blind community in Talladega. For example, I met an 18-year-old who'd been recently diagnosed with a genetic disease that caused blindness as a side effect. So he was going around telling people, "I'm the luckiest guy in the world. A lot of people with my disease get brain tumors, but I'm only blind." I thought that kind of eternal optimism was really admirable and inspiring.
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I told a blind man I photographed that I would send him his picture and as soon as I realized what I'd said, I froze. There are so many everyday phrases like "Nice to see you" that came across to me as insensitive when I was working in Talladega. But whenever I slipped up, someone always laughed or patted me on the back with a reassuring line.
I think their reactions to my mistakes showed that they're not looking for sympathy and they don't want to be treated differently. Rather than being perceived as deaf or blind, they just want to be seen as a person.
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The single biggest thing that I learned about the deaf subculture is that there's really no difference between hanging out with deaf people and hanging out with Japanese people who don't speak English. The only barrier is communication. To me, that was kind of a revelation, because like many people who haven't been exposed to deaf culture on a regular basis, I always thought of deafness as a handicap. But halfway through my assignment, I couldn't believe I ever thought that way, especially since so many of the people I met could do everything I could except hear.
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