hard-of-hearing

Autumn is hard of hearing; she has postlingual hearing loss in both ears, which basically means that she experienced her hearing loss after she learned how to talk.

“Life is already hard enough when you look like me … us. But whenever people find out that I’m hard of hearing, it gets even worse. The mean people become cruel. The so-called nice people think I’m weak. It happens every day, whether it’s people who think I can’t cross the street or check out a book by myself. And now it’s the same thing, even in the underworld. I mean, a god looked at me and called me broken. A deficient model.”

Autumn has always been competitive, and I’ve asked myself if her being hard of hearing had something to do with it.

“I know we’re Black. But what can you understand about being a Black, Korean, and hard of hearing girl in a society that doesn’t care about any of those groups? About trying to save the environment when you need to jump over a million hurdles first?!”

“You’ve proved it, ten times over. You’re already awesome, and cool, and smart, and popular. And you did all that while being Black, Korean, and hard of hearing. You’re on your way to changing the world! I … I admire you. I want to be as confident and capable as you are.”