Stephanus Pretorius: Working hard and discovering my deaf identity

My name is Stephanus Pretorius. I am Deaf. I was born in South Africa but moved to the UK with my family when I was eighteen years old. Therefore, I use different sign languages, namely SASL, BSL and I’ve also been learning some ASL. 

From a young age I understand I was different but I did not know why. I was living in a hearing world as all my family are hearing. I thought it was expected of me to be able to hear. I tried very hard. First with hearing aids and then with a cochlear implant. I only became aware of the Deaf culture recently when I started doing ASL. 

I studied various courses in higher education college and three universities in the UK from 2005 to 2019. The courses were at first focused on graphic design, illustration and animation and then I also did a Masters degree in filming. I passed all of my courses and degree. I have been learning and studying very hard over the past years.

In 2012, I worked on a freelance basis as a rendering department assistant for Lupus Films in the making of The Snowman and The Snowdog, an animated film. I really enjoyed this experience. The film’s credits have my name on the IMDb website.

I have recently become really interested in the representation of deaf people in the film and TV industry. When I watched the deaf actress Marlee Matlin in Reasonable Doubts (1991-93), I could not understand ASL because SASL and ASL are different. I therefore decided to start learning ASL. I saw three films, Godzilla vs. Kong, CODA and Eternals. I was surprised that one of the actors in Eternals was deaf, she is called Lauren Ridloff. I really enjoyed watching this. I was also watching the Oscars with subtitles and was very proud of Troy Kotsur winning an Oscar for the film CODA. It makes me feel that deaf people can do anything in the future.

In 2022, I started learning ASL properly with ASL Connect via Gallaudet University. I was able to do this remotely via online classes which is great. It was a self-paced learning course. I was studying the ASL 1, 2 and 3. I had to study every day of the week from very early until late, but I really enjoyed it and passed both with an A grade. The reason I am choosing to learn ASL is to better understand and read ASL on films or on TV.

I did a ZOOM meeting for one of ASL Connect’s social events. In the meeting ASL Connect introduced Marika Koavocs-Houlihan. She told us about Deaf ideology. It is important to note who we are, and what it means to be Deaf. Deaf culture is our way of life.

Language and cultural rights of deaf people are important. It really made me think about ‘Deaf’ as an identity. It made me want to learn and understand more about Deaf culture, and so I am now doing a lot of research into the history of Deaf ideology and what it means to be Deaf.

I know now that I am part of an amazing culture – the Deaf culture. That is my identity. I am Deaf and nothing is going to change that. I communicate by Sign Language. That is not going to change no matter how hard I try. 

I now understand that I need to be proud of my Deaf culture! I have a lot of catching up to do.

The Deaf Americans have progressed a lot with this. I am reading as much as I can – everything I can find about the Deaf culture. I hope that in time I can help other deaf people like me. I also hope to change hearing people’s perspective of deafness.

In the meantime, in my spare time I have also started to do some comedy acting on my YouTube channel. It is called ‘Stephanus Pretorius Show’, and in it I use BSL and ASL. It is light-hearted and something I do for a bit of fun!