My Passion for Sharing Deaf & DeafBlind Awareness

We obviously know it's 2021, but some people's beliefs about Deaf and DeafBlind people are still centuries behind.

People still ask:

Can Deaf people drive? - Yes they can, it's been proven that Deaf drivers are safer drivers as they are more visually attuned to their surroundings. I want to know how you drive with the radio blaring, hmm?

Can Deaf people think and learn? - There's no correlation between hearing and thinking. There are many Deaf people with degrees - Bachelors, Masters, and PhDs. Some are teachers, lawyers, engineers, and more. The issue is the public's perception and discrimination in hiring these individuals in those fields. (This is why about 53% of Deaf people are employed or underemployed, compared to 75% of hearing people).

Can DeafBlind people communicate? - There's the assumption that DeafBlind people are just like Helen Keller who was completely deaf and blind. The truth is it's a spectrum with any type of vision or hearing loss from mild to severe. They all can communicate in a variety of ways - speaking, write, text, sign language, tactile sign language, and much more.

Can they read and write? - I can't believe we still get asked this. See my video story below on this.

My solution is to make videos and share them across social media platforms.

Making it Humorous

The humorous pianist Victor Borge said:

Laughter is the closest distance between two people.

I often use humor and sarcasm as a coping mechanism to deal with discrimination and oppression. I figured why not also use humor and sarcasm to teach others "what not to do".

I humorously tell my experiences, like the one above, to make the situation light-hearted while exposing misconceptions and stereotypes that Deaf and DeafBlind people experience regularly.

Sharing My Stories

Along with sharing my stories I also create videos on disability awareness, mini sign language lessons, disability tips, and fun TikTok humor. Occasionally I do Live sessions and answer viewers' questions.

A short video on What to Do When You Meet a Deaf Person:

I believe the easiest way to teach people is by exposure. I put my videos out there and people can watch and learn. If they're curious they can comment with their questions and I'm open to answering them.

A Different Approach

In the Deaf community when we call out on discrimination, oppression, lack of accessibility and other issues - we are "direct" and to the point. This is because we do not sugar-coat our words, we need clear and literal infromation. There are many reasons behind this but mainly it's due to English being our second language and things get "lost" in translation as we share information clearly in ASL. Because of this we are often labeled rude or angry people.

Don't get me wrong, I can get aggressively passionate about disability issues. Especially when it comes to misrepresentation or pushing stereotypes - such as the 3-part video series I created about the short movie "Feeling Through". I was livid and it was abundantly clear. (Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3) * Warning videos contains cussing

Normally, I take a more subtle route in promoting advocacy.

Turning My Passion into a Job

As I mentioned, the Deaf population has a much lower employment rate, this rate is much lower for those who are DeafBlind like myself - about 34%.

Instead of sitting back and accepting that statistic, I've turned it into my own job - I teach American Sign Language (ASL) online. I created a website for booking lessons, downloading learning resources, showing videos and information on ASL, Deaf Culture, Deaf History, and much more to share with the public.

Unfortunaltely this job is only part-time as there's not enough demand to make it a full-time one. I do wish to expand my services and am trying to brainstorm ways to be able to keep educating and sharing my passion with the public.

Nevertheless, I share away.