Being Seen Quotes

“Nondisabled people are the ones defining disability as a whole. They decide what is possible to live with, and what gets discarded as useless.”
― Elsa Sjunneson, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism

“Why is it the business of the nondisabled to determine what it means to be blind, or the business of the hearing to determine what it means to be deaf? Why are people who don't use wheelchairs policing the visual of a wheelchair user?”
― Elsa Sjunneson, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism

“It is a truth universally unacknowledged that you could become disabled at any point in your life. No matter how perfectly your limbs, eyes, ears, and whatever else works, it could all change in an instant.”
― Elsa Sjunneson, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism

“I was enough before ableism came for me. My dearest wish is that society will learn to accept disabled bodies as whole, instead of viewing disabled bodies as lesser than, instead of creating value judgements based on how a disabled person accesses their world.
Wholeness is not determined by how many eyes you have or how many working ears you have. It doesn't depend on which limbs work or how many of them you have, either. Wholeness is about personhood, and honoring the bodies of your fellow humans.”
― Elsa Sjunneson, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism

“Not all Deafblind people are nonverbal. Not all Deafblind people are completely blind, or completely Deaf. Not all Deafblind people use tactile sign like Helen did.”
― Elsa Sjunneson, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism

“Most Deaf kids have home signs; they develop their own ways to get what they need. I have my own, too. My colleagues in the science fiction world who sign can get my attention, can communicate with me if they really need to. A lot of the signs we use aren't "real," but they're the ones I use, and that's why we use them together. (Page 33)”
― Elsa Sjunneson, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism

“Did you know that Helen Keller created her own form of sign language to communicate with her family? (Page 32)”
― Elsa Sjunneson, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism

“The English language is perniciously ableist. We speak in metaphor that constantly puts down disabled bodies, with phrases like "turning a blind eye" and "it fell on deaf ears" falling from our lips so easily. People often tell me it's not that big of a deal. But, of course, if you've been listening to your language make you sound stupid, ignorant, and useless for your entire life, when you've made a profession out of the craft of language, you cannot help but find pain in the ways that language cuts you to the quick.

ASL has its own barbs. All languages do. But English is troublingly ableist. (Page 42)”
― Elsa Sjunneson, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism