Headlamps and Fireside Light
摘要
An outdoors headlamp emblazoned with the phrase ACCESS THE INACCESSIBLE ®: thus begins this essay’s meditations about what it means for a deaf person to “access” the dark and deep woods, both alongside other deaf companions and amid a variety of hearing friends. Through a range of personal stories about hiking trips and time outdoors in nature, the piece considers the wilderness as a place that can reveal our fundamental relationship to our bodies and to each other, as well as a place saturated with cultural ideas about ability, skill, danger, sound, silence, and sensory acuity.