I don't think I've uploaded these sketches before. They're over a year old, but they capture (in rough drawings) my reactions to the first time I encountered a deaf-accessible hotel room. Click to enlarge.

(I'm writing text descriptions of the panels in an attempt to be accessible to screenreaders too, since this is something I have failed at in the past.)

1st panel: "I've been deaf for 25 years. This is the first night I've ever lived in a fully accessible space. Here's what it looks like." (Image: hallway view of yelling coming from inside a hotel room, with a housekeeping staff member looking at the door, perplexed.)

2nd panel: "AAAAA!" (Image: happy yelling coming from a cartoon Mel, waving her hands at a door knock sensor. The door knock sensor is labeled with an arrow as "door knock sensor," and Mel is labeled with an arrow as "vibrating with happiness.")

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1st panel: "That's right! It looks a lot like joy!" (Image: Mel continuing to yell in happiness, beside the door with a thought bubble saying "Someone could knock on my door AND I WOULD KNOW!" and a caption saying "The lamp flashes when the door is knocked.")

2nd panel: (Image: Mel continuing to yell in happiness beside a phone and TTY, with a thought bubble saying "Someone could call my room AND I WOULD KNOW!" and a caption saying "The lamp flashes when the phone rings.")

3rd panel: (Image: Mel continuing to yell in happiness beside the bed with a vibrating pillow alarm clock, with a thought bubble saying "I can USE THE ALARM CLOCK in this room!")

4th panel: "Oh, right. That's because it IS joy." (Image: Mel continuing to yell in happiness in the room, with a thought bubble saying "My presence has been forethought!")

 

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1st panel: "In my 27 years on this planet, I've seen a lot of it. I've stayed in countless places - couches, hotels, guest rooms, basements, suites..." (Image: a Mercator-projected map, with significant chunks of most continents highlighted in red to represent the places I've travelled.)

2nd panel: "They've all been spaces for hearing people. So I've pretended to be one." (Image: a younger Mel stares out the window of a 2nd-floor dormitory. An arrow pointing to the window says "The dorm room I was stuck in when my friends all moved to a different building. I had to stay in the one with a flashing fire alarm.")

3rd panel: "But now I'm unexpectedly in this space. For 4 days, this is my room. Mine." (Image: Mel with thought bubble saying "Wait. This could exist in my home too. This could... I could...") "The possibilities excite me." (END)

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