A reflection on communication, accessibility, and empathy, using design not only as a visual discipline, but as a powerful tool for storytelling and social awareness

Visuals

QUÈ? is a personal editorial project, born out of the need to tell the personal story of Regina as a deaf person with hearing aids. This 222-page book explores her lived experiences of hearing loss, including both the challenges and the moments of joy that come with navigating the world in a society designed primarily for hearing people. Beyond sharing her personal story, the core objective of the project was to translate the daily experience of deafness into a physical and emotional reading experience.

For people with hearing loss, visual communication is often clear and immediate: they observe, analyze, and understand their surroundings with relative ease. However, when it comes to oral communication, information is constantly lost along the way, requiring continuous effort, concentration, and adaptation. To communicate this contrast, we used the editorial design itself as a narrative tool. Images and photo captions are designed to be easily legible and visually accessible, representing the clarity of visual perception. By contrast, the main body text is rotated -90 degrees, forcing the reader to continuously rotate the book in order to follow the narrative. This deliberate physical effort mirrors the mental fatigue, overexertion, and frustration that people with hearing loss experience daily when engaging in spoken communication.

Additionally, the text is center-aligned so that, when viewed from a distance it visually resembles a sound waveform, reinforcing the metaphor of human voice and oral communication: present, yet difficult to access. Through these editorial decisions, the book transforms reading into an embodied experience, allowing the reader to feel- rather than simply understand- the reality of hearing loss.

Graphic Design 222 pages Digital Printing Hard Cover