‘Sorda’ (‘Deaf’), A Film About the Anxieties of Having a Child in a Hearing World

I went into a store the other day, looking to buy something sweet. It was full of Turkish products, and I asked if they had anything gluten-free. The salesperson paused for a moment and then said no, even though, looking around, it was clear to me some of those foods, like halva, were, in fact, gluten-free.

But now imagine a deaf woman wanting to ask the same question at a store where the answer isn’t readily available — for instance somewhere with less familiar ethnic foods. In the vast majority of cases, that individual wouldn’t stand a chance of getting an answer from the salesperson simply because the latter wouldn’t know sign language. Okay, many deaf people can lip-read, but if my experience today was any indication, the sales associate would be so detached from her role that she may not even bother to say more than “No” when she could easily take the deaf woman around the shop and show her some products. To be fair, the salesperson I met today did come from behind the counter to the product shelves when I lingered there, but all she did was read the same products I’d pick up to inspect. It was too little, too late; yet I…