Q&A: Storytelling for deaf children

What inspired you to begin publishing e-books?
I have two hearing children who I read to when they were young. It was difficult because, while hearing parents can put their hearing children on their lap so they can see the pictures, deaf parents such as myself can’t do this because the child needs to see the sign language their parents are producing as well as the pictures.

How has the response been?
A mother of two girls, aged five and eight, one hearing, one deaf, recently sent me a video message saying that she was watching her two daughters reading my book together on their iPad. Parents tell me their children are impatiently waiting for the next book.

Hearing children also appreciate the books, as they are narrated in Dutch. I went to my son’s school to present my book to a class of 30 hearing children, and they all loved it. All of this motivates me to continue writing.

What’s next for you?
We’d like to organise a yearly storytelling competition and perhaps we will include another competition in the festivities programme for the 10-year recognition of Flemish Sign Language. I also have a new book that will be published in March, about a flower that’s too small to see the world because the grass around her is too high. I have lots of other ideas for books, but the problem is time. My colleagues, Geert Dirickx and Jan Verhoeven, and I invest a lot of our free time in these books; we don’t get paid to create them.