I am not deaf, but not quite hearing either. I feel that both these worlds live happily and strongly in me. Of course I am also much more, which makes me that Raili that I am. This is how one could describe the stories of Raili Ojala-Signell on her experience as a hearing child of deaf parents. Lively, mini-short stories offer insightful flashes and door openings to a world that is not so well known: where she was born and where she has lived multi-dimensionally and colourfully all her life with her family, work, training, and advocacy work, and in her leisure activities. These stories include a strong positivity and above all belief that ignorance and prejudice against deafness, sign language, and sign language culture can easily and surprisingly be made to disappear with information. Views of a deaf, of a deafblind individual, of a hearing child of deaf parents, of representatives of the hearing majority, and of a worker in the field of deafness appear in the stories along with their experiences, often in a humorous way. These views make it easy for the reader to become absorbed in the situations, ambiences, and emotions in the stories. With their help, the reader can identify with the experiences and even with the identities depicted. The book is a welcomed addition to the literature which is still scarce in this field of deafness and also to the rich tradition of storytelling within the deaf community.
About the Author: Raili Ojala-Signell was born in Säynätsalo, Finland, grew up in Kinkomaa near Jyväskylä, spent a year as an exchange student in the United States in 1967-68, and studied social work in Tampere. She is retired and lives in Järvenpää. She worked for over 30 years as a sign language interpreter, information officer and advocate for the Finnish Association of the Deaf and the World Federation of the Deaf, as well as acting as a guidance counsellor in a deaf school and as an interpreter trainer. She has worked actively in many organisations and has been one of the founders, for instance, of the following organisations: The Finnish Association of Sign Language Interpreters SVT, The Finnish Association of the Hearing Children of Deaf Parents, The European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters and the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters. Some of the stories of this book in Finnish have already been published in magazines and anthologies. She has also translated a novel by Raija Nieminen, Voyage to the Island, Gallaudet University Press 1989, into English.