Disrupted Communication

Anne Fitzsimmons & Kennedy Duke

*first draft*

There are two main forms of communication: auditory and visual. Humans tend to use a combination of both when communicating with other humans. When one of these methods is lacking - either in input or output - communication tends to become more difficult.

Both Angie and Kennedy knew this well, but they also knew that communication is still possible and one learns to adapt.

Angie was born profoundly deaf. Her inability to hear did not in any way hinder her success in life. She graduated highschool at 15, just like her older brothers. She got her first PhD in biology by 17, and was a genius.

Kennedy lost 90% of her sight in an accident when she was 3. She learned to adapt to a world based on sound and her lack of sight did not stop her from living life to its fullest. By the time she graduated, she had been to every continent except Antarctica.

When one cannot hear, she relies primarily on sight for communication. When one cannot see, she relies primarily on hearing for communication. In general, others are pretty good at changing their communication output methods to encompass any communication restriction, so that nothing is missed.

The real challenge came when Angie and Kennedy were assigned as roommates at the university dorms. Using the opposite sense from the one that was lacking was no longer an option.

Angie was the first to arrive at the dorm. She arrived early, eager to experience university in-person. Her first degree had been done mostly on an online format. Angie’s parents, D. Leo Fitz and Dr. Jemma Simmons, had helped her move in, then left her to settle in on her own. Angie, or Dr. Anne Fitzsimmons, as she did already have a PhD, couldn’t wait to meet her classmates and be in a classroom again. While online classes were more accessible with transcripts and subtitles, along with the fact that she had been 15 and her parents wanted to her stay home. When she turned 17, her parents agreed to let her complete her next PhD on campus.

After setting up the final stuffed monkey of her collection, Angie looked around and smiled. It was a small room, with 2 beds, desks, a bookshelf, and an old TV. It wasn’t much, but to Angie, it represented freedom. Her stuffed monkeys lined her bed, and her biology equipment lined her desk.  She had left half of the room empty for her future roommate. And Angie couldn’t wait to meet her.

By the time she had finished unpacking, her roommate still hadn’t arrived. This was her first time living away from home. She knew it was coming, and had been looking forever; her brothers, James and Oliver, had both left home at about the same age as she was not, or even a little younger. It wasn’t even Angie’s first time at university, but she felt like this was the first time she was really growing up.

It wasn’t until the next morning while Angie was out exploring campus that Kennedy arrived.

The drive Kennedy and her father, Colin Duke, took ended up being quite a bit longer than they had anticipated. First, one of the highways closed down, then the traffic on the detour was ridiculous, and to top it all off, they got a flat tire. Kennedy’s father tried to convince her that these were all signs that she shouldn’t be leaving, but Kennedy just smiled.

Colin was very protective over his only daughter, and as much as she found it frustrating at times, and would push the limits, she also understood. The same accident that took her sight also took her mother’s life. It had been only her and her dad her entire life, and now she was leaving.

Kennedy had been excited about going to university and living in a new city for a while, and couldn’t believe it was actually happening.

Kennedy was nervous about having a roommate, and hoped that this new roommate would be understanding when it came to Kennedy’s lack of sight.

It wasn’t hard to find her room when they arrived, as all the rooms had nametags on them. Her father read them all out as they went by, and Kennedy attempted to remember at least some of them. Putting names to people would be a separate challenge.

When they arrived at her room, she was excited to learn that her roommate's name was Angie. They knocked on the door, but there was no answer. As they went in, her father told her nobody was in the room, but someone had already unpacked.

It was a fairly small room, especially after both girls had unpacked. Kennedy’s cello stood in one corner, and her half of the bookshelf was filled with figurines and souvenirs of her travels instead of the expected textbooks. Kennedy did have a few books in braille, but found that she preferred audiobooks.

Kennedy, aware that her father would try to prolong the good-bye, and maybe even try to convince her to change her mind, started pushing him to leave. She knew if she thought about the fact that he was leaving and she would be in a strange city alone, she might just take him up on the offer of returning.

With some reluctance, Colin realized that his baby girl was growing up. She had always been quite independent, but knowing that she wouldn’t have someone right there to lean on was hard for him.

One of the first things Kennedy did was put a bell on the door handle. She wanted to know when someone came in.

She got acquainted with the room, and felt like she could do anything.

When Angie walked into her dorm room, she grinned. Her roommate was finally here. She tried to contain herself and gave a civilized wave. Her roommate looked towards her and smiled, but didn’t return the wave or even look her in the eye. She said something, but Angie pointed to her ears, trying to indicate that she was deaf. There was no recognition from her roommate, and she once again opened her mouth.

Great, Angie thought, she had gotten put in the same room with someone who was prejudiced against people with disabilities. The girl was probably saying something like “you’re not really deaf, stop pretending”

Kennedy couldn’t believe her roommate still hadn’t said anything. Upon hearing the bell on the door, she smiled and introduced herself to her roommate. Even if she wasn’t blind, it was still rude of her to ignore an introduction. If her roommate had something against blind people, it was going to be a long year. Maybe her dad was right, maybe she should have gone to the local college and continued to live at home. He probably hadn’t gotten too far, and she could still call him.

“I’m blind,” Kennedy said, gesturing to her eyes, “so I can’t see anything you are doing, but I don’t want this to interfere with our friendship.” She waited with bated breath for a response.

No way, Angie thought, as she watched her roommate gesture to her face. Did the university really put a deaf girl and a blind girl in the same room? Maybe she was misinterpreting the situation, but her roommate had ignored the introduction she had scribbled in her notepad, nor had she made anysort of eye contact the entire time.

Angie pulled out her cellphone, and opened the text-to-speech app.

“Hi, I’m Angie,” an electronic voice read out.

Kennedy turned towards the sound in surprise. That was definitely a recorded voice. Was her roommate a robot?

“I’m deaf,” the voice continued, “but I have an app here that can change your speech into tet that I’ll be able to read.”

Kennedy suddenly felt way better about her roommate.

“Hi, I’m Kennedy, I’m blind.” She said, trying to enunciate every sound.

There was a pause then,

“Kennedy. K-E-N-N-E-D-Y?”

“Yes,” she answered, then remembered to nod. Nodding wasn’t second nature to her anymore, and neither were other body gestures, as they didn’t aid in her communication at all, but it was something she was determined to work on. If they wanted this to work, there was a lot they needed to figure out.

It didn’t take long before Angie and Kennedy had become best friends. About 5 minutes, they were sitting on the floor, laughing. Neither could believe the ironic situation they were in. But they would make it work - they were determined.

Getting to know about each other took longer as everything had to be put through an app, but Kennedy learned all about Angie’s family and her love for science, and Angie learned about Kennedy’s travels and love for music.