Interview: Camilla Arnold and Teresa Garratty on new BBC Radio 3 series, ‘My Deaf World’

Next week, over five nights, a heavily visual culture is given the audio treatment in Flashing Lights Media’s production The Essay: My Deaf World.

Ahead of the first broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Monday, The Limping Chicken’s Liam O’Dell speaks to producer Camilla Arnold and contributor Teresa Garratty about looking into the complex world of the Deaf community.

TV producer Camilla Arnold likes a challenge, and her latest test sees her explore a contradiction: a collection of essays about what it’s like to be Deaf in 21st century Britain, aired on BBC Radio 3.

“For me, radio was alien,” she tells me. “It was just a completely foreign concept. Creating a radio programme about Deaf people, even though it is paradoxical, I think educates a hearing audience. It’s a very mainstream way of educating people, fundamentally.”

It’s about hearing people understanding that British Sign Language is not a disability, but rather part of a community, Camilla explains, and while the essays will be read aloud, the producer was adamant that they were accessible to Deaf people, too.

At the same time as the audio versions are broadcast, British Sign Language (BSL) versions will be made available, as well as subtitles and audio waves. It is, Camilla says, a “holistic experience” for the audience.

She continues: “What I wanted to do is really think about how we show the Deaf community, and the different experiences people have of that Deaf community, because it’s not really talked about.

“What I wanted to do is really think about how we show the Deaf community, and the different experiences people have of that Deaf community, because it’s not really talked about.

“So, I just brought together a different group of people from different experiences and backgrounds – a wide range of walks of life, really,” Camilla says. “I know the five, and I know their stories, so I gave them broad themes to work with.”

The five contributors are activist Abigail Gorman, academic Robert Adam, research assistant Sannah Gulamani, sign language interpreter and child of Deaf adults (CODA) Sandy Deo, and filmmaker Teresa Garratty.

Teresa joins me and Camilla on the Zoom call. The theme of her essay, I learn the week before, is the d/Deaf debate – two spellings which individuals use to determine their place in the Deaf community. Deaf, to most people, refers to a cultural identity, while deaf usually concerns the medical condition and those who communicate orally. The distinction continues to be controversial, and is considered divisive by some.

“There have been quite a few times where – I don’t want to be too negative – I have met some people who have shunned me because I have an oral background or wasn’t born deaf, so I started to sort of notice that I still had differences, even though I was in the deaf community,” reveals Teresa. “Even now I still have kind of a deaf imposter syndrome, where I feel like I’m never Deaf enough [or] I’m never BSL enough, I can’t sign well enough – even though I have many lovely friends who are like, ‘no, you’re doing well, your signing’s improved so much.’”

Commenting on the essay project, she says: “I felt it was quite nice – like, refreshing in a way – that it wasn’t one of these sugar-coated, ‘oh, the Deaf world is so nice and Deaf people are the nicest, kindest people’. Obviously, there’s positives, but there’s negatives as well.

“I think it’s quite important that that we tell people that these things are happening, because hopefully it will make the Deaf community have a look at themselves and think, ‘okay, maybe that’s something we can work on, something can change’.

“I think sometimes you need to have both sides, so you don’t have your sort of rose-tinted glasses on and think that the Deaf world is perfect, because it’s not,” Teresa says. “There’s always room for improvement in any culture or community, so why shouldn’t we work on that?”

“I think sometimes you need to have both sides, so you don’t have your sort of rose-tinted glasses on and think that the Deaf world is perfect, because it’s not.”

I mention the point that deaf people probably want to protect a language that’s been protected for years. It was almost wiped out by hearing educators at the Milan Conference in 1880 (who ruled that oralism was superior to sign language), and now, it’s being distorted and exploited by TikTok stars and Instagram profiles in a wave of cultural appropriation. Yet, being so protective of sign language can create barriers for Deaf people willing to learn it, so what’s the solution?

“A magic wand,” Teresa jokes. “Language acquisition – that happens best when you are younger. It’s something that I’m so annoyed with myself about; if I have been learning this stuff at a younger age, would I be better at it now?”

Camilla chips in: “I think it all starts with giving access to BSL from a young age. [If we] start to change the curriculum, we will change attitudes, and I do think the attitude is 100 percent better than it was.

“For example, I grew up oral. I didn’t learn to sign until I was older, and my parents are very liberal, very open minded, but they were told by the doctor: ‘do not give her access to sign language. Just don’t’,” she adds. “I think more and more medical professionals are beginning to be pro about the language, but there’s not enough. It’s still the old attitude of ‘BSL bad, oralism good’ – and that’s still happening.”

The Essay: My Deaf World will be broadcast over five nights, from Monday 14 – Friday 18 June at 10:45pm on BBC Radio 3.

Photo of Teresa: Samuel Dore for BSLBT.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.