Good Evening!

Im Carol Ashey and the title of my presentation is Looking Behind Me: How Identity,
Society, Literature, and Education Effect Disability. The reason why I titled it Looking Behind Me has
to do with accommodations Ive had in school. As many of you know, Im hard of hearing, and one of the
accommodations in the classroom for someone with a hearing loss is preferential seating. This means
the HH person must sit where they will get the most information from the teacher. For me, this was in
the front row of the classroom. I have always sat directly in the front in my classrooms at school. I called
my title Looking behind me because I never knew who sat behind me in class. I knew who sat on either
side of me, but never behind. Also, the journey Ive had writing/making this project has forced me to
look back on my life up until this moment.
The most important points from 391:
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HH literature is virtually non existent

HH literature is there, just not advertised
DS seeks to improve PWD representation in society, literature, and education
Where is my story (thesis is my story)?
Where am I? (this is the key to my argument; my argument currently does not exist name and
claim ties into this found where my argument should be in DS

Identity is influenced by society, literature and education and disability

Identity is made up of spirit, personality, family, and environment/influence
Disability has always been a part of my life, I just did not always acknowledge how much was
effected by it; it was not the most important part of who I was as a personuntil now. What was
most important about me was the fact that I was an individual and that I was an introvert who
needed time to myself.
Where/how do I begin the 391 summary section? The first thing/aspect I noticed while doing my
research for this topic was that my disability was not there. It quite literally, did not exist, even in
the conversation of DS. What mention there was on the HH was relegated to a few sentences, as an
extension of deafness, or how easily they fit in both worlds so it wasnt much of a problem to
deal with. I knew this to be true in literature as well except for that one time in elem school where I
read a story abt a HH rabbit. I expected it to be really hard to find literature with HH characters; but
this was surprisingly the easiest. I found a total of 4(Belonging, Wonderstruck, Five Flavors of Dumb,
HG). This thesis is my story. This is me carving out my conversation, telling the story of someone
who is HH, not d/Deaf and how my story is just as important.
Conclusion how am I going to wrap all of this up?
Everyone needs to see themselves represented--represented in literature, represented in education,
represented in society. Representation of persons with disabilities (HH and otherwise) will lead to a
more inclusive society and system of education, and an authentic literature from those whose lives
are differently abled. The point is that disability is influenced by everything just as much as identity

(society, literature and education). How a person views life also reflects on how they view persons
with disabilities. Your life is your identity, your society, your literature, your education, and you
represent yourself, your voice, your story, through your ISLE.
How do I word the above in a scholarly/smart way?
Last slide of ppt manual alphabet of ISLE