Henry Lawson and Judith Wright were deaf – but they’re rarely acknowledged as disabled writers. Why does that matter?

Henry Lawson (left) and Judith Wright

Most of us know Henry Lawson and Judith Wright are icons of Australian literature. But it’s less well known that they were both disabled.

Lawson began to lose his hearing when he was nine. Wright started to lose hers in her early twenties. Neither identified as culturally Deaf, but both named deafness as a significant influence on how and why they wrote.