Yep,
you're seeing this correctly. First off, if you don't watch this
show, it's a medical show that also has a lot of drama. I remember my
former roommates in college trying to get me into it back then, but I
only got into it about a few years ago. And as someone who is hard of
hearing, I am excited about this news. I am always excited about deaf
and disability representation in the media. For instance, and this
will be another post soon, there is a show I saw a couple of years
ago on Netflix that had wonderful deaf representation. Anyways, like
I said, that will be a post for another time. Let's get back to the
topic at hand.
This
deaf doctor is actually deaf... The actress's name is Shoshannah
Stern and she is deaf. Although that usually wouldn't be the first
thing I post about someone, but, I have included a wikipedia page and
an article to confirm and checked her twitter. She is authentic. I do
my research. About Shoshannah, I first saw her in Supernatural, but I
didn't even know it was her, I do remember her signing though. That's
all I will say. I have included her imdb page in this post as well.
Okay,
please forgive me, I'm typing like this hasn't even aired yet, but
apparently it has and I'm late... again. I'm still gonna write about
it because this news makes me happy and excited. Please also note
that I have not seen this episode or these episodes, I have too many
shows to watch when the TV shows are on that most of them I watch on
Netflix or Hulu when the shows are on break and the seasons come on
those streaming services during the summer. I will watch 'Grey's
Anatomy' this summer. So please, if you read this and want to
comment... no spoilers, please.
So,
who is this deaf doctor? Her name is Dr. Lauren Riley and she is a
Diagnostics Expert, hired by Dr. Andrew DeLuca, a regular at Grey's
Sloan. The way she is described, I love her already and I haven't
seen the first episode yet. Stern made her debut on February 13th
and will play in multiple episodes. She is best known for her role on
'Supernatural' and 'This Close', which she co-created. According to
the article, I think Grey's did a good thing, I'm not sure they do
everything right, but I think this time they did. They not only
worked with her, but with other deaf doctors to make sure what they
were doing was accurate. She is the first deaf doctor on 'Grey's
Anatomy' and one of the few deaf doctors in TV history.
We
need more disability representation in TV and movies, authentic ones.
There have been some good ones, including this one, but there are
very few, I think. Or maybe they're finally coming out with more and
more and I'm just missing the news about them.
I
am gonna close out with some words from Shoshannah Stern:
“If
it’s not authentic, then it’s not disability representation,”
Stern previously told The Mighty, adding: “You
lose an opportunity there to educate. You lose opportunities for
people to learn how it is to communicate with a person, how it is to
make the set accessible, etc. So all of that is lost. The person is
just playing the role that they could take off — it’s almost like
a costume that they could take off at the end of the day — and
disability is not a costume.” - Quoted from The Mighty
“It
was important to me that rather than Dr. Riley overcoming this
insurmountable obstacle of deafness in order to be great at her job,
her being deaf actually made her better at what she did,” Stern
told ET. She continued: “Deaf
people have already been deaf for a very long time, so they’ve got
this. In reality, it’s the other people around them who struggle
because they’re like, ‘Oh, OK, I have no experience communicating
with this person in this particular way.’ That’s what the new
experience actually is, and I think we got to show that in a very
organic way.” - Quoted from ET (from The Mighty article)
Until
next time, God Bless
-
Chloe
Sources:
