Lianne Herbert: Growing up deaf

‘How Deaf are you?’ is a common question I get from both the Deaf and hearing world.

I tell them, ‘moderate-severe but when I was younger I was severe-profound.’

I was diagnosed as deaf at the tender age of three in London. The NHS in London wanted to send me to a Deaf boarding school but my parents were reluctant as I would be a full British Sign Language, BSL, user and not oral.

We then moved to Oxfordshire where within two weeks I had hearing aids!

Lianne as a youngster at home and at school in the playground

The mammoth task of getting me to hear and speak was left to my mum and the local Deaf services. I learnt to speak fluently at the age of five with no BSL skills.

Deaf identity

As I grew up, I felt that there was something missing but I was trying my hardest to fit into the hearing world. I also didn’t have any Deaf friends I could talk to, so I was isolated in every which way.

Lianne with her first Teacher of the Deaf, Ann Chapman

It wasn’t until I was in my twenties and studying in London that I finally connected with the Deaf world for real this time.

As a child, I went to Deaf events held by the National Deaf Children’s Society, NDCS, in Oxfordshire, but that wasn’t every week.

In my twenties, I felt that I could talk about my frustrations of being Deaf in a hearing world and the lack of access we all had to simple things like conversations, TV and outdoor entertainment. I had, at last, a Deaf identity. Something that had been missing for twenty-odd years.

Lianne at her 25th birthday celebrations

I found that by me learning BSL I could fully immerse myself in the Deaf world and connect to conversations that don’t rely on sounds and pure guesswork by lipreading the speaker or speakers.

I was free to be me! I didn’t have to pretend I heard something the first time or ask a hearing person to repeat themselves until they got frustrated. It. Was. Freedom.

Mental health services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

There are few mental health services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the UK. Only one therapist, to my knowledge, that is Black as well as Deaf. This can have a profound impact on Black Deaf people as there are no role models we regularly see on the TV that look like us.

This in turn affects our mental health which is something that Black Deaf UK, BDUK, are trying to address so that another generation aren’t excluded from seeing positive Black Deaf role models.

The two Deaf mental health organisations in the UK are SignHealth and Deaf4Deaf. They can help you find your Deaf identity amongst other issues you may have. I have used both of these organisations and I’m pleased to say my Deaf related issues bother me less than before.

I am learning to embrace my Deafness and with the likes of Rose Ayling-Ellis on mainstream TV and the BeingHer twins whom are mainly in the fashion industry, it’s only a matter of time before there are more Deaf representations from different nationalities!

Lianne Herbert is a writer who will have two monologues to be published in 2022 in the Hear Me Now Audition Monologues Volume 2 by Bloomsbury. 

She has also had a monologue filmed by Deafinitely Theatre called I Still Blame Myself which has been performed by Kelsey Gordon and directed by Paula Garfield. She has also previously written other work for the company.

Lianne also has poems published in What Meets The Eye? The Deaf Perspective edited by Lisa Kelly and Sophie Stone which have been translated by Nadia Nadarajah. They have been published by Arachne Press.

Peepal Tree Press Weighted Words anthology also features poems by Lianne.

You can follow Lianne on Twitter: @lianne_herbert and Instagram: @lianne.herbert