Deaf21 refers to the 21st Century. The site was first published on 21st June 2025 (the longest day) so that’s another way of looking at it! In every sense however the ’21’ refers to the Deaf and the 21st Century. Other more traditional domain names had been considered but Deaf21 was chosen because ultimately its very easy to remember.
Deaf21 is a blog that was set up by a deaf autistic on the suggestion of one other and that because my school experiences were absolutely horrific. It is recognised those school experiences have contributed to the trauma that is now recognised by my social workers and counsellors – besides the abject bullying and lying by hearing people these past two decades and the use of the police as a tool for hearing people’s abject hatred and discrimination against the Deaf.
If people want to know which school – its Mary Hare – a school that dispensed such awful experiences that its even painful to meet other pupils from that school. Firstly because none of them can ever imagine the experiences I went thought and secondly I am remotely nowhere near any sort of status of a ‘Mary Hare’ person – because first I don’t want to be and not only that, I can never forgive the school or the pupils of the time of the massive abuses that were procured. I struggled massively after that experiences and even in the 21st century it was recognised the trauma I suffer (including psychological problems and deeply seated fears is no doubt down to Mary Hare.) I am also not a Mary Hare person because a Mary Hare person is successful. So I am not a CEO of a Deaf organisation or a manager of some important work, nor do I have any sort of role in promoting Deaf rights or BSL simply because I do not have the integrity or the academic skills required to do such tasks. I was set up to be a failure thanks to that horrific institution and even now I still view myself as an abject failure. And it is for that reason I do not want to see any Mary Hare people.
The wrongfully contrived pseudo ‘de-schooling’ experience that was Mary Hare however saw to it that I, the author of Deaf21, never really got any proper jobs apart from cleaning, stacking shelves, doing deliveries and the likes. Even brief periods of what seemed gainful employment were punctuated by further bullying, therefore I have never really fitted in anywhere – not even the deaf community. Even a certain member of the BDA made me painfully aware I had no proper sense of socialisation or understanding priorities and the likes and had no skills at organisation and whatever. Despite my involvement in environmental issues and grass roots movements covering rights and oppression even that was a struggle despite some small successes only because a handful of others understood me and my disabilities. The one ‘true job’ I got which was working for Friends of the Earth at its UK headquarters, something I had long desired, alas I was thrown out of the building by Friends of the Earth’s UK director after a few days – because the director took a huge dislike to me and my disabilities. Even though Friends of the Earth contacted me the next day and gave me a letter of apology and claimed it had all been a mistake – there was no way I was ever going back there.
The recent changes to the site (made at the end of 2025) are because I have no idea how well the site is supported – if any – and that despite its huge anti oralist stance. Besides, certain deaf-led organisations – run by former Mary Hare very unsurprisingly – are associating with oralist endeavours and apparently rubberstamping this through controversial collabs (I’m not the only one to have noticed this – others too have denounced what can only be a typical Mary Hare thing which damages the deaf community considerably). Hence its been decided just the bare minimum be shown on this site – including the one article originally written for the blog about that horrific school. I’m not wasting my time going backwards and am focussing on other things instead.