International Deaf Children's Society

It was not until the age of 20 that I realized clearly that the majority of the world perceives D/deaf people as disabled. It is because I was born to a fourth generation Deaf family that I grew up seeing myself as a normal variety of human being exists as a result of evolution. I thought it was really strange for outsiders to see us as disabled, which contradicts greatly with the ideas of the hard core Deaf community members.

Although I am Deaf, I always enjoyed mingling with hearing peers in the approximately 3,000 populated town of Gooding in southern Idaho. I grew up there from the age of 5 till 17. I enjoyed it a lot being able to show my hearing peers the Deaf's way of living. My sister, who is the only hearing member of our family, was the only sibling I had. Although older than me, she would choose to walk behind me and have me pave through the crowds for her. I brought hearing peers of mine to my home so they could become friends with my hearing sister only to find out they were already classmates. Ironically, my sister grew up in a similar boat to that of a D/deaf child in a hearing family.

I have always seen myself as a true and intriguing variety of the human race. It is just the same as perceiving chickens with wings, which cannot fly. They are merely being part of Mother Nature for taking part in evolution. I cannot understand why people fret over deaf babies born with low hearing levels. Yes, I call it hearing level, not hearing loss. It is because I just cannot see myself as being supposed to be born hearing in the first place. Hence the label 'hearing loss' is wrong. We don't say chickens are flying impaired.

I strive to be a Deaf individual who will achieve a Ph.D. in linguistics. I also want to educate others about how English can be taught through ASL and with other countries' written language through their natural signed languages. I think that the controversy over using a natural signed language with a Deaf child is painfully ridiculous. I look forward to building up more research to provide a scientific view on this topic besides educating others that we are a rare "breed." I look forward to the day when it is a common thing for people to say, "Oh, conceiving a Deaf baby is like producing a golden egg."

There is research where neuroscience has proven that signing Deaf bilinguals use so much of their brains. The brain benefits so much from knowing more than one language as proven by countless research, whether it be spoken or signed language. That’s another reason why I intend to use my future Ph.D to educate others on how beautiful AND beneficial it is to be Deaf.