“We always rely on captions, but they’re always in English grammar structure, and having the concept of adding a Deaf interpreter there just makes it a clearer message,” Durant told IndieWire, via an interpreter. “It gives us expanded ideas and meanings, and then we as Deaf people get to understand the meanings behind it, using our own language and seeing it on the screen. It makes it even more accessible to us and so much more special.”
Durant will be superimposed on the corner of the screen for the entirety of season one, which sounds like it was quite a process to film. Durant watched the whole season in a mirrored format, so he could match the angle of his body to the direction the characters are speaking onscreen. He and Deaf actor Leila Hanaumi—who served as ASL interpreter for Barbie and directed Durant’s performance—also had to come up with a number of original signs for in-universe terms like “Infected” or Ellie’s “electric stairs,” (a misnomer for “escalator” from episode seven, as she’d never seen one before). The team tried to keep these originals to a minimum despite the apocalypse setting, however, as making the language too convoluted would have defeated the purpose of making the show easier for Deaf viewers to understand.
To fill in the gaps, especially in the earlier episodes that rely on more technical jargon, the team turned to the Deaf scientific community to see how they conveyed similar concepts. “It’s just amazing this kind of access is capable now, because it aligns with Deaf people in different work environments and fields,” Hanaumi said. “We were able to use those signs that they as Deaf people, scientific Deaf people, have developed, so it was very cool to have this process and the progress of more ASL accessibility. It’s not just about the enjoyment, it’s very motivated by the fields as well.”
For Durant, this was also an opportunity to get back to work, as he said opportunities that had been growing for Deaf actors since CODA “became really quiet” after the SAG-AFTRA strike. “We want to see a Deaf lead, we want to see more Deaf leads, for an entire seasons [sic] and more,” he said. “I hope there are more Deaf characters that will be written in the future in shows or TV. That is our hope.”
