Listening With Your Eyes: Towards Understanding ASL and the Deaf Community, with Michel Zaken

In this episode of On Listening, I have the distinct privilege to
interview Michel Zaken, secondary education professional and Deaf
woman. She engaged with me via Zoom along with her interpreter
Nicole Lupinetti. Michel helped me understand the experience of
listening for the d/Deaf and hard of hearing population with the
caveat that she does not speak for all d/Deaf people. We discuss
American Sign Language - a strictly visual language - and how it
differs from American English. She exposes myths around deafness
and discusses the experience from the lens of having a “deaf gain”
as well as living with a disability. We also explore “audism” which
is the bias that d/Deaf people are in some way less than. I learned
more in this podcast than any other and so appreciate her
thoughtfulness and connection on this topic.