When an exclamation mark is misread as anger, it’s misjudgement.

9 Jan

Written By Stephanie Todd

Soft, muted photograph of a young person sitting alone at a desk in a dim office, looking thoughtfully at a laptop screen after reading a work email. A message overlay on the screen references tone being perceived as aggressive.

I wasn’t shouting.

I wasn’t upset.

I wasn’t being rude.

I was just writing the way I sign, clear, expressive, and visual.

But hearing eyes saw it as “attitude.”

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When interpreters are treated as a cost, not an investment, access breaks down.

When Deaf directness is called rude, it’s pathologising.