“I think that Deaf culture is a part of being deaf. Deaf culture is a very unique culture in that the only way you can truly experience it is by living it,” Leslie Ramos, ASL teacher, said.
Ramos’s career has centered around interpreting and teaching ASL for six years, and she also sponsors the ASL club. Her goal is to raise awareness for Deaf culture and people.
“Deaf people are exactly the same as hearing people. The only difference is that they can’t hear. I think a lot of times the hearing community looks at somebody who is deaf as somebody with a disability. And, well, don’t get me wrong, there are people who are deaf and have disabilities. The vast majority of people who are deaf are simply deaf,” Ramos said.
Ramos feels that in the hearing community, there are opportunities to be more inclusive to the Deaf community.
“Maybe people become a little bit more aware that we need, for example, captions during meetings, or perhaps we need an interpreter in a certain situation,” Ramos said. “[Deaf people] don’t always realize what they could have and what their rights truly are and what they could achieve if they had different accommodations that were appropriate for them.”
She has lived in both communities because she has both hearing and deaf family members.
“In my home, it is completely normal to sign the minute I walk in the door and not use my voice until the hearing members of the family come home. And then, when they’re there, it just very naturally comes out that we’re signing, speaking, or signing and then translating,” Ramos said.
Rebecca Thom, ASL teacher, is also a part of the Deaf community.
“Myself and both of my daughters have some degree of hearing loss, their dad also has some level of hearing loss, and my first cousin–both of her children have a similar hearing loss to my daughters and I. So it is from connexin 26: a hereditary hearing loss. But pretty much everyone else in my family is hearing with the exception of people that have lost their hearing as they got older,” Thom said.
Deaf awareness is different now than it was when Thom was growing up.
“I think within the hearing community it’s come along way just because a lot more students and people in general are exposed to ASL and have the opportunity to take ASL classes,” Thom said.
Lauren Zigmant, ASL 4 Honors student, senior, started ASL her freshman year.
“The learning experience has been so fun. I’ve had a couple of experiences with deaf people over my years of learning, and they’re such an accepting community,” Zigmant said.
Zigmant also wishes for more awareness of Deaf culture and the community.
“I know that clubs like ASL Club and even French Club and all those other clubs exist, but there’s not a lot of just daily focus around it. And I know there are deaf or hard of hearing students here. I think they should be uplifted in some kind of way,” Zigmant said.
Part of the issue may be that Deaf culture is not common knowledge.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize that there is Deaf culture,” Thom said. “I think in general the hearing community sees deafness as being something that’s wrong or something that’s broken and not every deaf person feels that way. A lot of deaf people that I know are very comfortable with their loss of hearing.”
However, the hearing community can help make the Deaf community feel seen.
“It takes so little effort on our part to learn just a little bit more about their experience and to truly make a difference in somebody’s life, whether that’s being welcoming and kind, being open to learning something new, learning a new way of communication, or maybe stepping out of our own comfort zone,” Ramos said.
