She received a cochlear implant when she was very young but it’s never really worked properly. I thought Charlie had the strongest character arc as she goes from feeling quite isolated both among the hearing and the Deaf to becoming much more comfortable with who she is and learning to stand up for what she believes in. This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. We mainly follow three characters: February, the hearing headmistress, a CODA (child of Deaf adult(s)) who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who’s never met another Deaf person before and Austin, the school’s golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing. The story takes place at the River Valley School for the Deaf-a boarding school located in Ohio.

This story was equal parts coming-of-age but also provided plenty of education too.

From the debate between the use of American Sign Language (ASL) and cochlear implants, the history behind Black American Sign Language (BASL) as well as the discrimination Black Deaf students have faced and much more. When I read that Reese selected a story focused on Deaf students, I was definitely curious to check it out. I know for a fact I have not read or watched a film focused on Deaf culture (I haven’t seen the Oscar winner CODA yet).

Synopsis of if i never met you